


Just Go With It

by Kalyppso



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Background Caspar von Bergliez/Linhardt von Hevring, Background Cyril/Lysithea von Ordelia - Freeform, Background Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd/Marianne von Edmund - Freeform, Background Ferdinand von Aegir/Hubert von Vestra - Freeform, Background Relationships, Background Sylvain Jose Gautier/Felix Hugo Fraldarius - Freeform, Blow Jobs, Comedy, Cunnilingus, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Smut, Foursome, Hand Jobs, M/M, Multi, My Unit is not Byleth, Nonbinary My Unit | Byleth, Other, Penis In Vagina Sex, Polyamory, Romantic Comedy, Smut, Threesome, Vaginal Fingering, Vaginal Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-13
Updated: 2020-04-13
Packaged: 2021-01-30 06:31:21
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 40,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21423745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kalyppso/pseuds/Kalyppso
Summary: This is a Modern AU where Claude x Lorenz x Hilda x Fae (an afab nonbinary My Unit) start dating because of a slight misunderstanding with some dinner plans.--"I can't just ask them out," Lorenz said plainly. Hilda looked at him with large questioning eyes and so he insisted, "Regardless of their answer, I'd be out a dog walker.""So that means I can ask them out, right?" Claude asked with a wink, already making his way to the door."No, wait, you can't just — fuck," Lorenz protested, but Claude was already gone.
Relationships: Hilda Valentine Goneril/Claude von Riegan, Hilda Valentine Goneril/My Unit | Byleth, Lorenz Hellman Gloucester/Claude von Riegan, Lorenz Hellman Gloucester/Hilda Valentine Goneril, Lorenz Hellman Gloucester/Hilda Valentine Goneril/Claude von Riegan, Lorenz Hellman Gloucester/Hilda Valentine Goneril/Claude von Riegan/My Unit | Byleth, Lorenz Hellman Gloucester/My Unit | Byleth, My Unit | Byleth/Claude von Riegan
Comments: 22
Kudos: 24





	1. What Do You Mean We're Dating?

**Author's Note:**

> All Fire Emblem properties and characters have credit to Nintendo and their respective creators / owners. I'm just playing.
> 
> Everyone is their post timeskip ages.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fic has fanart now! Sort of: [It's tucked away in this post.](https://omgkalyppso.tumblr.com/post/189948064726/mochiibunns-happy-holidays-yall-i-hope-youre)
> 
> I drew MYSELF some more fanart. [It's not of any particular moment in the fic.](https://omgkalyppso.tumblr.com/post/626907629093044224/id-art-of-characters-from-fire-emblem-three)

Lorenz hadn't dated for two years. He hardly felt that was noteworthy — some people went their whole lives without dating, but this was hardly a sound argument to dissuade the teasing and insistence from two of his closest friends that he simply had to get back out there.

"Don't act like it's such a loss," Lorenz insisted, a patiently annoyed smile playing at his lips. "You both might be dating but neither of you have a partner, take advantage of my absence from your playing field."

He gestured with his tea, drinking through their protests, half wishing his beverage was stronger. The noise in his kitchen died out when the sound of keys at the front door cut through the din.

First through the door was Magic, Lorenz's great dane. The black beast was lazy, and quiet, and had lost most of his teeth from age. He drooled as he was pulled back by a hand that reached inside to unfasten his leash, and let him scamper into the basement in search of his water dish.

Attached to the hand was Faedolyn, who hesitated and blushed at the closed door as they made eye contact with the trio in the kitchen. The day was cool, but not cold, and windy by the look of it. Fae wore a white aran sweater and tight jeans, their mint green hair pulled back messily in a hair tie with a large tangle of flyaway hairs. The light from the window beside the door caught all the best features of their face as they smiled politely at the kitchen's occupants, and waved to Lorenz, pocketing their keys.

"Good morning," they said, with a voice that was soft and earnest, "I hope I'm not interrupting."

"Not at all," Lorenz answered. "Good morning."

With that, they descended the staircase that led from the front door down into the den, following their charge, out of sight and beyond the sound of conversation — if only they remained hushed.

Hilda whirled on Lorenz, hissing excitedly, "Who the fuck is that?"

Lorenz rolled his eyes, she was relentless, and Fae's timing was unfortunate. "Their name's Fae," he offered initially, checking his phone to avoid eye contact. "They come by to walk Magic twice a day on weekdays, because normally, I'm at work and not entertaining you two busybodies."

"Why don't you just ask them out?" Hilda asked, whispering.

"Um," Fae called from the door. "Goodbye! Have a good day."

The trio waved at their departing guest, and while Lorenz answered Hilda, his eyes kept darting back to Claude whose eyes were jumping also, from Lorenz to the closed door.

"I can't just ask them out," Lorenz said plainly. Hilda looked at him with large questioning eyes and so he insisted, "Regardless of their answer, I'd be out a dog walker."

"So that means I can ask them out, right?" Claude asked with a wink, already making his way to the door.

"No, wait, you can't just — fuck," Lorenz protested, but Claude was already gone. Hilda seemed to be suppressing laughter, smiling at Lorenz with a smug expression. "Look what you've done now," he chided, a softness to his tone.

Hilda sighed exaggeratedly. "I do it for love," she sang, hiding her face in her own mug of tea.

Lorenz huffed out a solitary laugh, before answering with roll of his eyes, "I love you too."

It wasn't the first time any of them had invoked the expression. It simply felt like something people did, like something they did; say 'I love you' to one's friends. Even so, it hurt Hilda to hear it as much as it hurt Lorenz to say it, in the simple muted way of those who wished it meant more. 

It was a month before Lorenz, Hilda and Claude were able to find time to spend together as a trio again. Claude was constantly wrapped up finding the legs for his not-for-profit organization and other social responsibilities, while Lorenz and Hilda simply juggled work and family. They were walking back to Lorenz's place after having thrown a rubber ball around for Magic.

"Sylvain wants to know if we want to do something later," Hilda offered, checking her phone.

"I can't," Claude answered instantly, winking at his friend. "I have dinner plans."

Lorenz felt a warmth in his chest, and despite having previously resolved to let his friends discover his situation on their own, he couldn't resist boasting.

"You know, I actually have a date tomorrow evening."

Hilda and Claude's eyes blew wide, but their surprise wasn't insulting; Claude grinned like an idiot, and Hilda grabbed at Lorenz's arm.

She was beaming as she asked, "And you didn't fucking tell us?"

"I'm not beholden to you," Lorenz teased, before offering her further gossip. "And it's only a second date, easily it could prove fruitless."

"A second date?" Claude balked dramatically. "Lorenz, I hear wedding bells."

"Fuck off," he laughed.

Hilda was practically skipping now as she turned to walk backwards beside Lorenz, watching his expression as she squealed, "Tell us everything!"

Lorenz stopped walking, stealing their attention for further dramatic effect, or perhaps just to humor his own enthusiasm, unable to keep from talking with his hands. "It's actually Fae," he announced. He clarified, wondering if he'd even called them by that name during their one brief meeting, "Faedolyn, my dog walker." It was then that he noticed that their struck expressions betrayed a different kind of shock. "What is—?"

"I'm going to dinner with them," Claude blurted out in a rush. Judging by Hilda's expression, she had known. Claude looked ... mournful, and awkward. Lorenz suspected he just looked confused.

"Oh," he said softly.

"Oh my g—" Hilda started to exclaim, but Lorenz held up a finger in her direction and begged for her silence.

"_Please_." He turned back to Claude, now that confusion had a chance to settle in, "What?"

Claude felt like jumping out of his skin. He swept back his hair as he admitted, "It's going to be like, our fourth date." He wondered what it meant that assumedly Fae had agreed to go out with Lorenz even as they were starting ... whatever it was they were doing. It was far too soon to call it a relationship, but Claude was struggling as he too felt guilty. He started to explain himself, "I said I was going to—"

"Ask them out," Lorenz conceded. "Yes, I remember," he dropped his arm, "but based on what you said before and afterwards, I had thought that was just to goad me into doing it."

Lorenz no longer requesting her silence, Hilda snickered. "Good for them."

"Hilda," Claude warned.

"I should get in on this," she teased.

"Hilda," both men begged.

She rolled her eyes at them, and let them wallow in it.

Eventually, Claude brought himself to look at Lorenz again. "So now what?"

Lorenz sighed and straightened his hair, pulling himself to his full height as he answered calmly, "The mature thing to do would be to power through and let them make their own decisions." And then not so calmly, as irritation crept into his tone, "The polite thing to do would be for you to back off, considering how animate you were about me finding a partner."

"Three dates though Lorenz," Hilda droned, shaking her head as she finished furiously typing into her phone. "Would you really want to pursue someone who's slept with Claude?"

"Hey," Claude groaned, looking up and down the block, "I resent that." He blushed and hesitated but hoped that if he shared the truth, that Lorenz might reveal what it was he and Fae had gotten up to. "Besides, we've not even kissed."

"That's unlike you," Hilda said with a raised eyebrow.

"They have boundaries," Claude said in answer to her, before looking back to Lorenz, feeling his chest tighten with the awkwardness of the situation. "Did you kiss them?"

Lorenz blushed as his friends looked at him expectantly, but he quickly shook his head and went back to examining the crack in the sidewalk he stood upon. He felt magnanimously stupid. Of course one date was nothing but a casual encounter, but the idea of setting himself up for the very unique sort of disappointment that would come from watching them curl into Claude's arms and leave him lonely, or the worse sort of disgust of Fae leaving his life because of something Claude did on one of these dates, was starting to sour Lorenz to any resolution of the situation. He raised his head to speak, to concede the attempt to woo Faedolyn to Claude, but Claude spoke first.

"You could come to dinner with us."

"What?" Lorenz didn't even know how to start processing that sentence.

"And we could tell them, together," Claude clarified, "what's happened and why it could make us uncomfortable and see if they have a decision. Even if they've only been on one date with you, they've known you for like a year, yeah?"

"Oh man, Claude, you have had some bad ideas, but this one is wonderful," Hilda said with increasing amusement, but her face froze when she saw that Lorenz was smirking, and though he seemed to be addressing her, he stared at Claude as he answered.

"No, no, I think I like it. If I'm rejected like this then I'll finally have been humiliated in every possible, conceivable way; and if I'm chosen, it'll give me something to eternally rub in Claude's face when I need to."

Hilda brought a hand to her heart. "Well, fuck." She smiled sweetly at Claude, "What time's dinner?"

"You're not coming," he said, half laughing from nerves rather than amusement.

"Oh, I'm not missing this," Hilda insisted with a wink.

"Hilda, if you go it'll look like a double date," Lorenz argued, sounding forlorn.

She gave him an affronted look. "And what a shame that would be."

"Dinner's at seven," Claude said quickly, widening his eyes at Lorenz from behind Hilda. Lorenz got to watch Claude's expression fall back into a neutral state as Hilda turned back to him with a smile.

"Good," she said, skipping ahead, riling Magic into a slow jump. After treating the dog with attention and a scratch behind the ear, Hilda looked back at her friends. "Meet at Claude's?"

"No," they both scoffed before sharing a look.

Claude stated firmly, "You guys can meet me at The Restaurant at 6:50."

Hilda rolled her eyes, "Ugh, fine."

Lorenz sighed as he sat in his car. The Restaurant was a good choice on Claude's behalf, classy without being outside of what he might suspect Fae could afford, and laid back enough that there wasn't exactly a dress code. The clock showed Lorenz that he had another fifteen minutes before their scheduled meeting time to sit here and bemoan Claude's strategic outing. No one went to The Restaurant for the food, which was ... adequate at best, they did so because four days a week it was open to the attached dance hall next door. The Lounge was closed for clubbing and concerts on weekends, but otherwise hosted local talent that apparently they would be partaking in.

The act tonight was to be a duo, a guitarist and a percussionist who sang and, perhaps luckily, didn't play music that quite sounded as if it were intended for dancing to.

Lorenz caught sight of Hilda walking down the sidewalk and clenched his fists. He had to wonder if she was only attending to tease and torture him, or perhaps to pounce into Claude's comfort if this whole situation blew up in his face.

For a moment he thought her far under-dressed for the weather, but then noticed that her legs were not bare, but rather covered in white leggings that were patterned by sparse pink roses. Even so, her dark red dress ended mid thigh, and he could see that she was hurrying to their destination, likely from the chill. He smirked as he realized that even if she were only here to torment him that he would still give up his jacket to ensure her comfort.

When he caught sight of Claude, smiling and waving to the closed door of the establishment, surely at Hilda, Lorenz was relieved that he'd decided to wear a suit. His friend looked just as fashionable as Hilda, in a jacket and a paisley dress shirt in differing shades of light brown, and dark green slacks.

Unless Fae was already inside, Lorenz didn't want to risk arriving after them, and rubbed his forehead before looking at himself once more in a sun visor mirror, and going to meet his friends.

Despite Claude facing away from her, Hilda briefly considered linking her arm in his as he spoke to the hostess about their table. It would be purely to get his attention to turn so that he too could behold Lorenz's entry. Normally, she would be sure that Claude would be as eager as she to fuss and comfort their lanky companion, who looked about ready to run, but really, Claude had seemed just as unbalanced by the situation, and so Hilda sighed and shared a quiet smile with Lorenz as he entered instead.

"You made it," she greeted, reaching her hands out to him.

Lorenz took her hands as his face fell. "Was that in question?"

Hilda rolled her eyes and linked arms with him instead and turned them to follow the hostess as Claude winked and uttered a small hello.

These two were taking the situation so seriously that they were killing Hilda. They'd known each other, herself included, for so long, as if a date (or five, or ten), with a cute stranger could really put a wedge between them. She intended to make them regret fighting over someone else's attention before the night was over; especially when they had the gall to look so good.

Each man wore a suit. Lorenz's suit jacket and pants were white with grey and black speckled patterns of flowers. His dress shirt was wine colored. If she wanted to be crueler, she'd tell him he looked like a blood bag. If she wanted to be kinder, she'd tell him he looked like a rose of sharon. She kept quiet.

Lorenz was touching the long locks on the right side of his face, as if restraining himself from pushing them back behind his ear. When he caught Hilda staring, he offered her a shy smile, laying his hands on the table and straightening himself. With a huff she gave him a sympathetic smile in answer.

A waiter approached and began asking about drinks, when Claude waved at the entrance, and so the waiter excused himself to give their table a moment. Fae smiled at the table, waving as they approached, and Hilda had to concede that maybe they were attractive enough to cause some incoherency in her friends. They'd been cute enough when she'd seen them before, but their outfit now showed off their muscles and assets, paired with kind eyes and a humble aura.

Fae's mint green hair was down and felt far past the collar of a black sleeveless turtleneck which was tucked into high waisted beige pants that featured a cloth belt tied in a bow.

"They're hot," Hilda whispered, half because it was true and half to harass.

"Do not," Lorenz begged in a curt tone, standing in time with Claude.

Fae hugged each of the men and Hilda wished the waiter had poured water before he'd gone.

"Claude! Lorenz! It's so good to see you. Who's your friend?"

As taunting as Hilda had been prepared to be, she doubted she could steal the joy from Claude and Lorenz's faces as swiftly as Fae just had, skipping over them or any explanation as they singled her out. Hilda stood too, if only to feel a little more at height with the crowd as Claude introduced her.

"This is Hilda."

Hilda was surprised when Fae reached out a hand to be shaken, but she eagerly leaned into it. "A pleasure." Leaned over the table as she was, it was easy to trail her free hand up Fae's bare arm and then leave it outstretched towards them, not touching further as she gushed, "Ugh, I love those earrings on you. They really bring attention to your beautiful neck."

They were dangling little fish, something to remember, Hilda was sure. She hesitated when Fae blushed, struck by their beauty, and possibly continued promiscuity. Hilda shared a long look with Claude.

"Thank you," Fae said quietly, and satisfied, Hilda retook her seat. Fae sat across from her, either of them between the increasingly confused men.

"How was your day?" Lorenz asked Fae, attempting to ease some tension.

Fae smiled brightly at him and for a moment, he thought perhaps he had. "It was good. Finished a bunch of housework, and got to play with my niece afterwards."

"Fae," Claude said softly, and Hilda and Lorenz each instantly felt guilty by their presence. They would easily have let him have the conversation he was surely about to initiate on his own. He looked amazingly heartbroken. Fae just looked confused.

"Yes, Claude?"

He swept back his hair and looked away a moment before asking, "Don't you think it's odd that I brought a bunch of people to dinner?"

Fae looked at the other sets of expectant eyes before turning their attention back to Claude, the cogs in their mind still visibly turning. "No, why would I?" Their eyes widened as they seem to alight on some conclusion, "Did I miss something? Should I have brought people?"

Claude sighed, frowning. "No ..."

Lorenz reaching out as if he were going to touch Fae's hand or shoulder before pulling back as he asked, "Fae, why didn't you tell me you were dating Claude?"

"I? I'm what?"

Claude's side of the table jingled as if he'd kicked against it, as Hilda started to exclaim, "Oh, my g—"

Lorenz silenced her by holding up a finger toward her again, his eyes and attention still on Faedolyn's innocent confusion. He swallowed.

"Did you know that _ we'd _ been on a date?"

Fae seemed to think very hard about this, and so Lorenz was by no means relieved when they sought to confirm, "Uh? With the yoghurt?"

He too closed his eyes and sighed as he answered, "Yes."

"No," Fae whined, obviously overcome by the whole situation, "I ... I thought it was just a friendly outing. I thought you both just wanted to be friends." Claude had anticipated that putting Fae on the spot might result in a confrontation, but he hadn't even seen this as a possibility. For their own sake, and the sake of the others at the table, Fae quickly took to standing, "Um, excuse me."

The three of them watched Fae go in the direction of the washrooms. Claude buried his face in his hands.

"Okay," Hilda admitted, "so I thought I'd be laughing, but this goes beyond embarrassing. What did you even say to them?"

"Hilda, please," Lorenz begged.

"Drinks?" The waiter had returned, pouring water in four glasses on the table.

Claude swept his hands down his face as he sat up and ordered, "Two shots of rum, please."

"Would you like—?" he began to offer, but Claude cut him off.

"It doesn't matter."

"Okay," he confirmed, looking next to Hilda and Lorenz. They expected they wouldn't be here long.

"No, thank you," Hilda answered politely.

When the waiter returned, he left the two shots in the middle of the table.

"That was a good idea thank - you." Lorenz was saying, his sentence breaking as Claude quickly downed both, which wasn't quite unexpected, but did show off how completely wrecked by this he was feeling.

When the second shot glass clinked against the table, Claude smiled irritably at his friend, "Yeah, no, fuck off." He turned to Hilda, who had a more secure line of sight of the washrooms and front door. "Did they leave?"

"No, I'm here," Fae answered from immediately behind him. Claude wished he could sink into the floor.

He spun about so that he could face them, and suddenly his voice was small, "Oh, hi Fae, sorry."

They moved back to stand behind their empty seat so that Claude wouldn't have to strain to see them as they said kindly through hesitation, "No, I'm ... I'm so sorry that I didn't realize ..."

"It's fine," Lorenz insisted. "I'm sure, completely, that it was our fault."

Fae smiled softly as they leaned on the back of the chair. "I'm ... better prepared now."

Lorenz blinked through his own lack of understanding, as he tried to keep up a polite smile. "For what?"

"For our date?" Fae said with a bit of a shrug.

"Oh," Lorenz began, looking from Claude to Hilda, each wide eyed as he was sure he was. "Oh no. This isn't. I. Help me," he begged, turning back to them again, and away from Fae's continued confusion.

Hilda slapped her hands on the edge of the table and shoved her chair out from behind herself as she stood. **"Fuck yes."** She walked around the table and wrapped an arm around Fae's shoulders as she led them through to the dance hall. "Fae, let these two sort that out. Come dance with me."

"What is there to sort out?"

"It doesn't matter."

Watching Fae and Hilda leave left Lorenz and Claude to reconcile with this situation, so far removed from their previous turmoil.

"So," said Claude, meeting Lorenz's gaze.

"So," Lorenz agreed, looking away to the table, rubbing his left palm with his right thumb distractedly.

"What is the weirdest part of this?" Claude asked with half a laugh.

"They're beautiful, smart—" Lorenz began listing, unable to help himself.

"Smarter than us at any rate," Claude supplied.

"That hardly seems difficult at the moment," Lorenz droned. "They're caring and funny ..." He hesitated as he looked up to Claude stretching to try and catch sight of the dancing pair. "Shouldn't we pair off?"

"I did not expect to be taking Hilda on a date," said Claude, and Lorenz couldn't tell if he was changing the subject intentionally or not. Regardless, it was sufficiently distracting.

"Are you serious?" he asked, incredulous. "She's enamored with you. Has been for years."

Claude raised an eyebrow at Lorenz. "You're one to talk, she's been trying to get your attention since college."

Lorenz froze for all of a moment, blushing as some other threads started to connect in his mind before he confirmed, "Okay, so we've already established that we're idiots."

"The biggest idiots ..." Claude agreed, a playful smile stretching across his face. "Some would say we even deserve each other."

Lorenz rolled his eyes. "Now don't go that far." He stole the attention of the waiter as he passed. "Could I get some wine, please?"

The music was soft enough that swaying seemed appropriate, Hilda wrapped her hands around Fae's neck and bumped her hips against them through giggles as she worried what would happen when Claude and Lorenz came to find them. Enjoying the warm comfort of her companion's hands on the small of her back while it lasted.

"So, have you guys been together long?" Fae asked.

Hilda blushed as she answered, "No. This is something of a first date for all of us."

"Oh," Fae peeped, confused again, so that Hilda quickly ratted off an additional explanation.

"We've known each other for years, that's probably what you were picking up on."

Fae smiled and looked down, but whether it was in nervousness or in admiration of Hilda's figure, she couldn't guess. "Does that make it easier? Dating someone you've known for a while?"

Hilda considered her answer carefully. "It can, but ... well, we're the ones here dancing."

"I'm sorry if I'm not very good," Fae giggled, as the music changed pace but their swaying didn't.

With a wink, Hilda slid her hands down Fae's shoulders to their elbows, separating them a little so that she could try to lead them through some bouncing to better match the tempo. "This isn't my crowd anyway. I'd much prefer something with more of a beat."

She realized that it wasn't quite Claude's crowd either, and wondered whether it was just an event he'd expected Fae would enjoy.

"Next time, maybe?" Fae offered, releasing one of Hilda's hands a moment to sway away from her and then back again.

Hilda bit her bottom lip in a mischievous smile as she agreed, "Maybe, the night is young."

Eventually Claude and Lorenz walked up to the dancing pair, but to Hilda's relief, they didn't seem ... affronted, or outraged.

"Hey," said Claude.

"Hi," Hilda answered, releasing Fae and taking Lorenz by the hand. "Come here."

After giving Claude and Fae some space, Hilda pressed into Lorenz's space until her hands were upon his chest, his hands on her shoulders, swaying lazily to some ill timed love song.

"What is happening?" Lorenz asked, punctuating each word.

"I want to just go with it," Hilda answered kindly.

He laughed once, a fond roll of his eyes. "That much is obvious."

Hilda crept a hand up his chest to touch the bare skin of his neck as she asked, "What do you want?"

He bit his lips, hesitant to admit, "I'm not sure. I'm still shocked."

Hilda smiled. "Then you're thinking too far ahead."

"Oh?" Lorenz peeped, mimicking Hilda a little, bringing one hand to the side of her face.

She nodded, and pressed herself more firmly against him. Her face flushed with nervousness. "Do you want to keep dancing with me?"

Lorenz smiled affectionately. "Yes."

"Then just go with it."

Fae and Claude danced in silence for a while. He hoped it wasn't uncomfortable, but he too was still adjusting his expectations. However, they seemed content, and perhaps sympathetic. Claude leaned his head half over their shoulder, his mouth by their ear, as he asked, "You know when we were sitting at that lookout, watching the stars, and you asked me what I was thinking about?"

Fae hummed and the warm, comfortable noise sent a longing through their dance partner.

"Yes," they confirmed, "it was only six days ago."

"I was thinking about kissing you," Claude admitted in a rush and from his angle he couldn't see either the surprise or desire in Fae's eyes, "but I thought you'd seemed distracted ... and so I didn't, but ... if I had kissed you then, and you hadn't even thought we were on a date ... I would've felt _ just awful_."

As he started to pull away, Fae moved a hand to tilt his face to be more in line with theirs, and pressed their lips to his. Claude's mouth melted into the affection, while his grip tightened. His hands crossed behind their back and held their shoulders, keeping them close to him even when their mouths parted.

Fae smiled through a blush as they assured him. "There. Now no more need for guilt, right?"

A bubble of laughter left Claude, but whether originating from a gasp or a sob, he'd rather not focus upon, so he agreed. "Right."

After another song, they met and changed partners again. Lorenz lamented the cheery beat of the unaccommodating music until Fae took him by the hand, and blushed as Hilda called out to him to stop worrying about it.

When they were out of earshot, Fae asked him, concern in their tone, "Do I make you nervous?"

Lorenz blushed deeply, moving his hand up to feel the soft brush of their hair along their back as he answered, "Not at all." Realizing that this might lead to further questions, he added, "I've just ... never been on a date with more than one person."

_ 'If that's what this is,' _ he wondered idly.

"Neither have I," Fae admitted, and Lorenz really had to wonder then how they came to this conclusion on their own such a short while ago, but he didn't want this strange and precarious situation to crumble so swiftly.

"Are you comfortable, then?" he asked gently, pulling them over to a wall where they could avoid some of the revelry, and just stand in each other's company.

"So far," Fae assured him. "I'm glad you're here."

It took a moment for Lorenz to recover from the implications of their statement, but to his relief perhaps, they were as eager to laugh at his clumsiness as the others, filling the empty space with joy until he could concede, "Me too."

Hilda led them to the other side of the dance hall, an unnecessary distance in so far as Claude was concerned, until he looked away from across the room and down into her wide pink eyes.

"What?" he chuckled. "What's that look?"

"Kissing them already?" she hissed.

Claude looked down and then up in two different directions as if looking for an escape as he blushed before answering her, "You saw that?"

She jut her palm against the center of his chest as she scolded in a jovial tone, "You're lucky Lorenz didn't, I don't know how he might've reacted."

Seeing her reaction, Claude stilled himself, smiling at his friend as he wrapped a hand around the one she left on his chest. "Hilda."

"Yes, Claude?" she asked with only pretend annoyance.

He pivoted on his foot so that he would be standing between Hilda and where the other two were in the room, leaning in teasingly, "Would you like me to kiss you too?"

"Not here!" she squealed, laughing and shoving at his chest and his face.

Claude was surprised how easy it was to joke with Hilda in much the same ways they would've been even without any added pressures. They moved back around the room and snuck glances at Fae and Lorenz slipping back into the dancing, giggling about their height difference and the unaccommodating music.

After another two songs, they approached them, and Claude asked, "You guys want to find dinner now?"

Fae separated from Lorenz's arms. "Oh, that sounds lovely."

Hilda butted in, wrapping an arm around Fae's middle as she nodded to Claude and Lorenz. "Why don't you two share a dance? We'll order."

As Hilda led Fae away, Lorenz held the side of his head as if once again debating the situation.

"I'll let you lead," Claude offered, extending a hand.

Lorenz gave him a look before a smile overtook him. "Fine," he conceded, taking Claude's hand, grateful that the song was slow enough that they could simply sway in a mock waltz.

After a moment or two, Claude scrunched his nose as he smiled, lamenting, "You're so stiff."

Lorenz's gaze drifted back from behind Claude to focus on his face, a weak smile overtaking the both of them.

"People are staring," Lorenz explained, whined, worried.

"You think they weren't before?" Claude asked, wondering if that would offer any measure of comfort as he tilted his head back and to the side.

Lorenz sighed, flexing his hand on Claude's back. "I've never been on a date with a man — never dated anyone but women until Faedolyn. The stares feel different."

Claude let a moment pass, watching Lorenz's expression carefully. They both knew he'd dated men before, and knew that the reason Lorenz hadn't wasn't for lack of interest. Even so, ending up as they were now, Claude had to suspect that Lorenz could easily not be interested in him at all, or at least, not interested in facing what felt like such a public hurdle with him. Despite Lorenz "leading," Claude slowed their pace, out of sync with the music.

"They do," he agreed. "Do you need a moment?"

"No," Lorenz answered, perhaps a little too quickly, a light blush on his face. "I-I was just thinking."

Claude smiled, curious. "Of?"

"How it might feel to kiss you," Lorenz admitted, his tone deep and earnest. It was Claude's turn to blush. He forced a cheery smile.

"Play your cards right, and you might even find out."

Lorenz laughed once, and Claude had to wonder if all the others had been kissing or expressing interest in the same way that he'd been experiencing this night. He stopped moving. "Let me lead."

"Oh?" Lorenz peeped, but he was already moving to accommodate the request.

"I want to dip you," Claude said with purpose, and Lorenz scoffed, though he was still smiling.

"I'm too tall for that."

"Mm-mm," Claude disagreed, "just let your left leg go slack," he insisted, bringing the hand Lorenz had placed in his to meet the other on his neck, "in 3, 2, I've got you."

Lorenz gasped, and then felt very silly for it. He found himself grateful that Claude wasn't more undone by the alcohol, picturing himself shattering against the floor. As it was, the embrace was just ... brief, comfortable, Claude having leaned forward and twisted slightly on his side so that he cradled Lorenz at an angle, hands just above the small of his back. A person or two on the dance floor started to bring attention to them, and Claude winked as he straightened them.

"A night of firsts, it seems," Lorenz said at a whisper, unsure of whether Claude would hear him, until Claude laughed, nodding towards The Restaurant as he invited him away.

"Come on."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked this! Thank you for reading it at least! I'd love a kudos or a comment.


	2. What If We Kissed? Haha ... Just Kidding ... Unless?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All Fire Emblem properties and characters have credit to Nintendo and their respective creators / owners. I'm just playing.

Dinner was surprisingly similar to any other date Lorenz, Claude, and Hilda had been on, at least thanks to Fae's presence. Each of the others would ask Fae about their routine, their family, or their goals; despite already being intimately familiar with these details of their own lives. They did their best to keep up the exchange of information, even when Fae failed to ask in kind, as rushed as the conversation was at times. Though at others, the table did grow quiet with stories like secrets, decorated with unaddressed hand holding, until the atmosphere was lightened with bad jokes and plate sharing.

“So what are we doing after this?” asked Hilda as she licked some cream off a spoon. Only Claude dared give her a reproachful look, but it was one that she could match, and as if his incredulity had been innocent, she whined, “Well, it’s barely 9:30.”

“We have work in the morning,” Claude said in explanation. “It’s the middle of the week.”

“It’s a special occasion,” Hilda insisted. “You’d survive being tired tomorrow.”

“I know you hinted at going somewhere … with more of a beat,” Fae said to Hilda, “but maybe something quieter tonight?”

Lorenz tapped his index fingers on the table and took a breath as resolved himself to offer, “We could go to my place? Watch a movie?”

He expected Hilda to tease him about being forward or for Fae or Claude to look affronted, but Hilda was simply licking more cream and chocolate from her spoon as she eyed the others, while Claude’s expression revealed … interest, of all things; and Fae confirmed aloud, “I’m up for that.”

Afterwards, it was simply a matter of settling the bill, and sharing some gum Lorenz had on hand.

Claude offered Fae a lift when it came out that they had bussed to their destination, which Lorenz supposed was only fair, as this was supposed to be their date night. He was surprised they hadn’t sought some excuse to take a long way around or otherwise delay themselves. Nevertheless, his guests — his dates — all arrived at the same time and Lorenz led them down into the basement.

He let them fuss over Magic while he started a fire in a wood stove on the far side of the room and set up the television, offering Hilda the remote.

“The _ trust_,” Claude teased.

“It’s because I’m the favorite,” Hilda exaggerated.

In truth it was because she knew how everything worked, and was most likely to complain about anyone else’s selection, but Lorenz felt that sort of truth was fine for friendships, and unnecessary for first dates, so instead just rolled his eyes.

“I’m going to just let Magic out in front before putting him in his crate so he doesn’t bother us,” Lorenz said to the group before fixing his gaze on Claude. “You know where everything is, get people drinks or what have you.”

Lorenz was preparing to walk back up the staircase to the door when Fae nudged Claude, teasing too, "What was that about trust?”

He smiled as he left, both amused that Fae would feel comfortable enough to make such a joke with their tight knit group, and touched at the realization that he did trust Claude and Hilda beyond a shadow of a doubt. He couldn’t picture his life without them. It was terrifying to think of a game of polyamorous chicken ruining his relationship with these friends of his.

On the other hand, it felt like a logical conclusion, that if he were to try and date anyone, that it would be someone he trusted as deeply as them. And it was exciting to think of that trust being extended to Fae.

Upon returning to the basement, Lorenz was surprised that the others were seated on the floor in front of the couch. There were certainly enough chairs otherwise, even if the couch would only fit two or three of them comfortably, but they seemed quite dedicated to their positioning, Claude, assumedly, having laid out a pile of blankets on the floor for them to sit upon, with each person propped up with at least one pillow against the edge of the couch. Claude was curled around Hilda, his hands on her left calf.

"What is going on in here?" Lorenz laughed as he descended.

Claude winked at him over his shoulder. "I just couldn't resist anymore!" he exaggerated, falling onto Hilda.

She grunted loudly. "Get off me!"

Laughter tinkled around the room as Fae explained, "Hilda's still cold."

“Well was something wrong with the furniture?” Lorenz asked as he finished the last of his mushy assurances and locked Magic’s cage, thinking that being elevated from the floor might help Hilda's predicament.

“We wanted to sit with you,” said Claude, as if this sentence could be casual, as he sat up.

"Would you want to borrow some socks then?" Lorenz offered Hilda.

"Oh, yes please! That sounds lovely," Hilda answered, and Lorenz opened his mouth as if to say more, but found himself a little slack jawed as he noticed the delicate tangle of her legs, and the soft hitching of her dress. Judging by her expression, it had been intentional. Lorenz hoped he was quick enough to compose himself as he answered her with a smile and a nod.

"You're running him ragged," Claude teased as Lorenz skipped upstairs again.

Hilda smoothed out her dress and bat her eyes at Claude, "He loves it."

With a laugh, Claude was pulling himself from his suit jacket and tossing it over Hilda's legs, something she thanked him for as Claude asked Fae softly whether they were alright, thinking too late of their bare arms.

Fae nodded, admitting, "I'm hot blooded."

They pressed a warm hand across the back of Claude's palm where his hand rested on his thigh and chuckled about his expression.

Fae's shoulders twitched at the sound of Lorenz's descent, but they left their hand where it lay even as his shadow fell over them, giving Hilda a pair of folded socks so oversized for her that she could easily pull them up to her knees. Her thanks were emphatic and animate, and bordered upon exaggerated.

After a deep breath, Lorenz left his suit jacket over the arm of the couch and moved to sit next to Fae, surprised when they placed a hand over his as he leaned down.

"Oh, but _ you're _ cold," Fae worried, kind and caring. "Come, sit between us."

They looked at Claude, who offered them and Lorenz both a fond smile before shifting away from Fae. The green haired beauty elbowed Lorenz until he shifted to his knees off the blankets, and had no choice but to crawl around to the space between them. He deliberately avoided making eye contact until he'd found his place.

Hilda had graciously chosen an adventure-romance film that they’d all seen before, leaving the room open to discussion and distraction. Including Claude recounting the time he carried Hilda for over a mile because he’d thought she’d sprained her ankle, only for her to jump from his back and sprint five blocks when they discovered Lorenz had actually fractured his left leg on a flight of stairs.

There was laughing through the tale, the trio of friends interrupting each other with explanations and justifications, and apologies to Fae over worries of being obnoxious.

Around forty minutes into the movie, the conversation started to die out, and about an hour in, Lorenz found himself propped up on all sides. He had a hand out upon Hilda’s upper arm as she leaned into Claude, and Claude lazed against him, while Fae rested their head upon his opposite shoulder, tangling their fingers together on the floor. The couple in the movie were being reunited after years apart in a clumsy and comedic way when Claude gasped.

Before offering any explanation, Claude tilted his face closer to Lorenz’s neck, letting his nose touch against him, distracted by Lorenz’s cologne.

“Oh, you smell nice,” Claude purred, and as if everyone’s positioning wasn’t bad enough, certainly that had brought a blush to Lorenz’s face.

“Doesn’t he just?” Fae agreed, nuzzling his upper arm.

Such a statement from Claude would normally be nothing more than ribbing. However, their current circumstances were far different than any that previously exposed Lorenz to friendly teasing, so much in fact that this might even amount to something. Therefore, hopelessly, he didn’t pull away or protest, instead letting his breath hitch as he tilted his chin away from Claude, exposing more of his neck. An action he regretted almost instantly when Claude’s breath rumbled against his skin in a chuckle. Before he could move to try and mitigate whatever was happening, Claude was saying, “As far as I know ... Lorenz hasn’t been kissed yet.”

“Oh shit,” Hilda whispered, sitting up on her heels to face the others.

Fae blinked. “As in … ever?”

Claude pulled away, laughing, and Lorenz raised his right hand to his shield his eyes and his blush, facepalming. “No, not never,” he whined, humiliated. He straightened out, running his thumb down across his mouth absently. “It’s just been … a while — relative to these two,” he added quickly. “I would argue it’s not been that long.”

Fae huffed a silent laugh before waving a finger toward Claude and then Hilda. “They wouldn’t help you with that?”

Lorenz smiled, eased by this reaction. “I hadn’t thought to ask,” he said simply.

“Lo-” Claude started saying, but Fae placed a finger to his lips.

“Claude,” they objected, “you had your chance.”

Hilda’s face lit up in delight. Claude pursed his lips as they took their hand away, obviously amused.

Fae was keeping Lorenz’s eye contact now, and after so much buildup he was starting to question himself — had it been too long? Why was he breathing so hard? Not quickly, but deep, long breaths. Had he always breathed so hard? How would he regulate that?

“Lean down here,” Fae requested, tilting themselves up towards Lorenz’s face, lips parted gently so that he could see a glimmer of teeth.

Lorenz hadn’t expected to be so patiently observed when next he found himself in such an intimate moment. Neither would he have been able to predict his night ending anything similar to this six hours ago.

He leaned in to meet Fae’s mouth in a chaste kiss, one long, desperate breath escaping him and tickling their face. He thought he’d pull away, embarrassed, but satisfied; then the soft curl of their tongue slipped past their lips to tease against his mouth, and suddenly they were kissing long and deep, and far more passionately than Lorenz had been anticipating. He slid his left arm around them, holding them close, relief and desire and admiration fueling every short peck and long, drawn out kiss that followed.

Still watching Fae and Lorenz, Claude wrapped his arm around Hilda. He wished he could tell if she was staring or looking past him before turning to look at her. With a nervous lick of his lips, Claude hazarded seeking her expression, which caused Hilda to giggle.

She nodded, confirming, "I'll kiss you now."

Blushing, Claude pulled her into his lap so that she sat sideways, her legs curled down between his own. Hilda wrapped an arm around his neck, and placed her opposite hand on his chest, her gaze flickering from his lips to his eyes. She needed him to take the last few steps across this bridge, having pulled them both so far across it.

He dipped himself closer, smirking and intentionally bumping his nose against hers, and Hilda could've killed him. Little moments, where they were both distant and too close, fluttered through her mind, where Claude's eyes held hesitation; at least now, whatever it was he was weighing in his mind, seemed different. When Claude finally closed the distance, his jerky, warm familiarity softened into gentle adoration, and her whole body gravitated toward him so that he had to adjust his arms around her, and whimper around the eager assurance of her mouth.

Shocked back into the enormity of his situation at Claude's crooning, Lorenz hummed a small noise as he plucked himself from Fae's mouth. He needed to think, needed to breathe; he thought he might say something, but what? All of the emotions raging inside of him seemed too strong to articulate on a first date. Fae watched him expectantly for a moment, before kissing the side of his mouth, and slowly across his face, so that he could do nothing but whine and lean into it as they bit at the crook of his jaw.

Claude was running a hand up and down Hilda's thigh when she pulled away from him and warned playfully, "Over the dress."

He chuckled, leaning her back until her head rested in Lorenz's lap, "Yes, ma'am."

Lorenz shifted his thighs, nervous of their positioning, his agitation made worse as Fae slipped away from his neck to caress Claude's hands on Hilda's shoulders.

After taking another few moments to savor Hilda’s passion, Claude helped Fae reposition Hilda, up on her side, to meet their mouth next.

Hilda giggled; the men had thought Fae had boundaries when they simply hadn’t known they were offering. Her own situation with them felt much the same, if reversed. She tangled a hand in Fae's hair and ran her thumb through the dangling metal pieces of one of their earrings and struggled through mismatched kisses as she clambered from Claude's lap into Lorenz's.

Seeing that Lorenz was, rightfully, distracted by Fae and Hilda, Claude slowly brought his hand to where Lorenz’s hair fell along the side of his face, rolling the strands back around his cheekbone. Predictably, Lorenz stiffened, leveling his gaze on Claude before turning his head. They shared a nervous smile, Claude letting his hand fall to Lorenz's shoulder, watching Lorenz swallow and sit in suspense as he advanced toward him.

However, it seemed that Claude had taken too long, as Hilda moved about in Lorenz's lap and stole his attention, her legs wrapped around him so that Claude had to roll his eyes about any concerns with her dress.

“Hilda …” Lorenz hissed, his eyes falling closed until she curled a hand around the left side of his face, watching her with anticipation as she pulled herself up to meet him in soft, continuous kisses.

It was striking, to have to face her affection so directly now as he hadn’t before. He whimpered again, overcome, and felt his shoulders tighten in nervousness, surely perceived by Claude, who was still holding him.

Lorenz felt himself growing flushed, embarrassed by the whining and hitching breaths that escaped him, made only worse and more shameful as Fae’s hands slipped between he and Hilda to pop free a few of the buttons by his collar. Distractedly, he worried about his desperation, about his inattention to Hilda, both now and previously, for failing to notice her interest. However, when Fae unfolded his collar and Claude forced himself forward to press his mouth to the side of Lorenz's neck, his internal monologue spiraled into nothing.

He sucked softly on Hilda’s bottom lip and clung to the fabric of Fae’s shirt, as Claude traced a vein up his neck with his tongue, and Lorenz felt on the verge of combusting. To face Hilda's interest was one thing, and Fae's bold sentiment quite another, but to try and grapple with the reality of Claude kissing him too ... was disarming. The lips and tongue kneading the flesh of his neck were those of his dear friend, and sometimes tormentor. The teeth and facial hair tickling and scraping over his jaw came willingly, from someone with whom he was currently on a date.

Hilda squeezed her knees around Lorenz’s middle; amused, and aroused, and unrelenting. Her body warm and heavy in his lap, leaned only far enough away for Fae's fingertips to slip between his dress shirt and undershirt, rubbing at his chest as Claude wrapped a gentle hand around his throat and bit his ear.

Lorenz yelped softly, dislodging himself from Hilda’s lips, causing her to giggle as Claude’s voice purred in his ear, “Let me kiss you.”

Hilda pulled on the edges of his shirt, rolling the material back over his shoulders, causing Lorenz to gasp rather than answer Claude. His predicament made increasingly more disorienting as Fae kept their arm stretched across his chest, rolling their thumb over his right nipple, and Hilda bit into the exposed flesh of his shoulder.

Lorenz failed to suppress another small pleased noise from his traitorous body as he shifted his legs beneath Hilda, knowing the action would do nothing to hide the state of him. His only solace was that when Claude took his jaw in both hands and tenderly tugged at his attention, he found that he looked just as longing and desirous, blinking at him through long dark lashes as he leaned in for a kiss.

As he continued to caress and massage from Lorenz's jaw down to his neck, Claude felt Lorenz’s hand fit over his own. Both Claude's mouth and mind were busy with slowing them down, even biting Lorenz's tongue when he tried to speed their momentum.

He would never deny it now, if asked, that he loved Lorenz and Hilda both, that he’d fantasized about kissing them in different circumstances, that he wanted this. Everything about today had been unexpected, but these past few hours had been precious, these last few minutes irreplaceable. Claude worried his friends would pull away in disgust or regret at any moment, and resolved that he had to take back some measure of control in the situation, even if that was just the pace at which he rolled his tongue in Lorenz’s mouth.

Hilda tugged on Lorenz’s undershirt, stretching the collar open and pressing a suckling kiss to the curve in his collarbone before letting the material bounce back into place. With a delicate curve of her wrist, Hilda wrapped her hand around Fae's outstretched arm and nuzzled against their forehead to request their more focused attention, laughing when they pulled her from Lorenz's lap into their own.

Free of Hilda, Claude grappled with Lorenz until he was falling onto his side, pulled down among the blankets. He faced more kisses and eye rolls and giggling before he could hover over Lorenz, his thighs spread over Lorenz's hips. In a moment of tempestuous impulse, he rocked his groin down against Lorenz's. Claude caught his date’s resulting groan by pressing a thumb to his chin and catching his mouth in his own.

Afterwards, carefully, Claude kissed across to Lorenz's ear and whispered, "If I didn't have to drive Fae home, I'd offer to stay late to take care of that for you."

Lorenz curled his calves down around Claude's legs, adjusting his position beneath him, sighing and swallowing as he tried to ignore the pleasant pressure. "Another time, perhaps?"

Claude licked his lips, nodding, his voice breathy as he answered, "Yeah."

He might’ve expected Lorenz to be frustrated with the offer, either because of interest or disinterest, but the open invitation was unexpected, and tucked away in the annals of his mind for safe keeping.

They spent the next half hour making out to the sounds of a revenge plot and swords clashing, laughing softly when they'd be pulled from one partner to the next.

The film had reached its epilogue, and Lorenz was back up sitting against the couch, Fae between his legs and within his arms, Claude sitting cross-legged with Hilda in his lap, yawning through the conclusion.

"Not too tired to drive, are you?" Fae asked skeptically.

Claude rolled his eyes, and answered warmly, "I'll get you home safe." He squeezed his arms around Hilda and nuzzled from behind her neck to over her shoulder before asking. "Are you good, Hilda?"

Hilda thought about reacting with playful hostility, but the night was long enough that instead she wrapped her hands around Claude's on her stomach before answering, "Just peachy."

"Good," Claude mumbled, leaning back to where he could make eye contact with Lorenz. "Then I think that's it for the night."

Muting the television, Lorenz was nodding, running his hands up and down Fae's upper arms until they stood.

Lorenz released Magic from his cage and stood around in idle chatter with the others as they straightened themselves and put on their shoes. Fae was seated at the bottom of the staircase doing just that when they asked, "Are we still on for tomorrow?"

"Oh," Lorenz began, having nearly forgotten in the rush of the evening. He held the side of his neck absently. "Well, we can be. Do you still want to go out?" He looked to Hilda and Claude, "Or should I offer to have everyone over again? I could order something." He looked back to Fae, "Or we could reschedule?"

"You sure you wouldn't want some time alone?" asked Claude, a kind smile hardly masking his weighted question.

"No," Lorenz laughed, crossing his arms. "This was ... I had fun."

"It might be last minute notice for Friday night?" Fae suggested.

"I could do it," offered Claude, looking to the others, who each nodded in turn.

Fae smiled, standing three steps from the base of the staircase. "Then I'd rather do Friday."

They waved at Lorenz, beckoning him. He squinted in confusion as he stepped forward to meet them; an inch or three shorter than Fae when he stayed at the bottom of the stairs. They took hold of his shirt to pull him forwards and kiss him goodbye, removing the question of whether this would be an acceptable action for the rest of the group, and soon they were all tripping up the stairs and around one another with soft pecks goodnight.

Claude snickered and side-eyed Fae as they drove away.

"What is it?" they asked with a smile.

"Did you really think this was a date?"

They rolled their eyes. "At first, but I figured it out as Hilda pulled me to the dance floor that I'd gotten that wrong too. It was nice though. We've all already agreed to meet again - do you disapprove?"

"No, no," Claude answered quickly, leaning forward as they crept up to a corner, "I am definitely looking forward to seeing where this goes. I was just surprised at your leap in logic."

"It wasn't that far a leap," Fae insisted. "You and Lorenz said we'd been on dates separately, and then showed up together and —"

"Alright, I get it," Claude interrupted, blushing.

"Oh, text Hilda my number," Fae asked.

Claude chuckled, "Sure thing."

The rest of the ride was mostly silent until their arrival. Fae worried that having not given their number directly to Hilda would be perceived as an insult, or make them forgettable to the bright woman who was already so unmistakably devoted to the other two. They worried that the history of the other three would mean that they were unneeded, or else that it could mean that _ they _ would want to forget about the whole affair. Would this mean that Claude too would want to forget them? That they could be hurt platonically and professionally by Lorenz's decisions?

"It's this one, right?" Claude asked as he pulled them onto the proper street.

"Oh, yes," Fae acknowledged, smiling at him as he pulled to a stop.

"Thank you for the ride."

"Of course," said Claude, with a smile that insisted the alternative was unthinkable.

Fae swallowed. They feared asking any of their questions, or suggesting alternate solutions to problems that hadn’t even presented themselves. They didn’t know how to ask for reassurance.

"Hey," Claude called softly. "Everything alright?" He reached out as if to touch them, and then pulled back, opened his mouth to speak and then settled on a sigh.

"If you need to go be alone, then that's fine; but if you need to talk about what's happened tonight ... I promise to be as impartial as I can be?"

Fae smiled and nodded, though they averted their eyes for a moment as they conceded, "I might like that later." When they met Claude's gaze again, they seemed a little more at ease, and a little less distracted. He felt relieved to have their attention and assurance as they leaned in to share one last kiss for the night.

"I'll see you Friday then, if not before," Fae whispered, still leaned in Claude's space.

He raised his eyebrows as he declared, "I hear you're free tomorrow."

Fae laughed and shoved at his shoulder. "No."

He winked as they moved away. "Friday then."

"Later."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took so long because I rewrote it like a million times. Please be kind!


	3. Never Have I Ever Fallen In Love

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All Fire Emblem properties and characters have credit to Nintendo and their respective creators / owners. I'm just playing.

Fae found their apartment much as they’d left it, clean but disorganized. The space they shared with their father was rarely different. The duo didn’t keep much company, and it was a short enough walk to visit Alois and his family at their nicer townhouse when Fae could convince their father to do anything but lounge between work and sleep. Mostly, however, they kept from sorting their belongings out of old habits; being neat always took a backseat to knowing where the medical equipment was.

With a gentle hand, they roused their father from the sofa, assuring him they were safe and encouraging him to bed.

After a long shower, and an even lazier time pulling on pajamas, Fae saw that they had received texts from Claude and Hilda, a no longer unknown number. They smiled at the assurances, but dismissed them for the morning. They only had a few minutes of wakefulness left in them, and needed to tell Linhardt about their evening.

Somehow, the week felt like it had not enough minutes, and yet too many days. Responsibilities felt enormous and time consuming, leaving scant moments for texting and confirming Friday's plans. By the time Friday rolled around, the nerves and excitement for their date had reached their peak.

After a long day at the office and dealing with his father, Lorenz was relieved he had time to change and breathe before the others would arrive. He was disassociating, staring at the ceiling, thinking back on conversations from earlier in the day, trying to make them feel more distant than his forthcoming socializing. To his relief, Magic whined, and pulled him from his thoughts, pressing his face against Lorenz's knee where his legs were swung over the side of the bed.

"Don't worry, I'm getting ready," Lorenz cooed, sitting up and scratching behind the dog's ear. This was obviously a mistake, for when he stopped, Magic slapped a large paw on the bed as if to try and climb upon it. "No, come on. None of that," Lorenz fussed, pushing Magic away. "Just be patient and I'm sure you'll have plenty of attention tonight."

It was an easy distraction, to offer petty assurances to Magic, to keep from telling himself everything was alright. With his focus on his dog, Lorenz found himself wondering of how close Magic must've now felt to Faedolyn. He and they had exchanged a few little hand written notes earlier in the week, but it was still strange to think that they'd been in his home twice already today for the sake of his furry friend. 

It occurred to Lorenz as he finished his preparations that he could even suggest one day that Fae wait to attend Magic last in a day of clientele, so that they might meet up after. He stuttered in his actions, thinking that this would be far too domestic, and fret again over whether even this date was inappropriate, and if he could anticipate Fae saying they needed to quit walking his dog, and whether this would even be a bad thing.

It wasn't long before Claude's car was pulling into the drive, and seeing him exit his vehicle, bags in hand, Lorenz went out to meet him.

"Do you need any help with those?" he asked as Magic whined and barked from the doorway.

"Hello to you too," Claude greeted with a wink, shrugging at Lorenz as he walked around him, and backwards to the door. "No, I've got it."

Lorenz had to wonder if Claude would make him roll his eyes out of his head one day, and smiled as he skipped ahead to get the door and nudge Magic aside.

"So what all did you get?" asked Lorenz, following Claude to the kitchen, where he set down the bags on the small table.

"Nothing you weren't expecting," Claude tried to say reassuringly, taking a seat at the table and unpacking the contents. "Some of that sparkling apple-pear juice Hilda likes, mango juice, and rum. Were you hoping for a surprise?"

Lorenz laughed as he kneeled and opened the fridge. The sparkling juice came in three champagne bottles, and the juice in a four liter jug, so he needed to shift some things to accommodate them.

"More worried than hopeful," he called back, surprised to see Claude slumped, looking strangely and uniquely depressed when he turned as if to collect the drinks from the table.

"You still think I'm so unreliable?" Claude lamented.

"Claude," Lorenz pouted. "I didn't mean -"

"It's fine," Claude insisted, standing, handing Lorenz a bottle, smiling in a way that hardly felt sincere. "I guess I can hardly blame you after last week."

Lorenz took the bottle in one hand, and Claude's wrist in the other, leveling him with a look as he turned to place it in the fridge before standing, sliding his hand up the sleeve of Claude's sweater so that he could hold him at the elbow, hoping this was more intimate, less punitive.

"Last week was as much my error as yours," he insisted, pausing before addressing the core of the matter. "As much as I rely on you, it is difficult for me to imagine from where this concern of yours has taken root. I trust you," and Lorenz could feel a blush rising in his face as he wondered whether that sentiment had to make Claude look so smug so soon after his insecurity, "as much now, if not more than previously." He sighed, releasing Claude. "But I know that your passions can get ahead of you, and that if you'd procured something we hadn't planned for, it would only have been with good intentions."

Claude smiled, diverting his gaze for a moment, before winking at Lorenz again, teasing, "Maybe I just like having you scold me from time to time."

Lorenz answered with a warm smile, and another roll of his eyes. He reached around Claude for another bottle, continuing with putting the drinks away.

As he completed the task, a soft generic tune rang out of his pocket. When he silenced it without answering, Claude asked, "Telemarketer?"

"No, that's the alarm for when I figured I should order food," Lorenz answered, standing, smiling at Claude rubbing an idle hand on Magic's neck as he occupied himself with his phone.

"Well I guess we're about to find out if that was good or bad timing," Claude promised. "Fae says they're here."

As he finished his sentence, Hilda was pulling into the laneway.

Hilda was laughing as she exited her vehicle, swinging a tote bag and her usual oversized purse by her side. She was wearing a maroon sweater, but the neckline dipped down to her cleavage and spread wide across her body and upper arms - leaving her shoulders bare, and offering a hint of the beige strap top and black bra she wore underneath. Once again, far underdressed for the weather.

She scurried to the door where Claude was standing and pushed past him into the entrance while holding a hand up to his chest, chattering quickly, "Hi. How are you? _ Move, please._"

Claude winced and laughed as he was shoved aside, holding the door open with one hand while Fae scurried so that he could close it.

"Hi," they greeted softly, thinking for a moment of embracing Claude, and while they had done this when they met during their other greetings, Fae had thought those interactions friendly, rather than romantic. It felt different somehow, like overstepping, to presume that sort of closeness on a date.

"Hey," Claude answered, hesitant about Fae's lack of contact. He placed his hands on their shoulders, perhaps awkwardly, and winked when they raised an eyebrow at him.

"Lorenz is ordering. I figure we shouldn't start drinking until it gets here. Do either of you need water, or anything?"

Both Hilda and Fae assented, and so shortly Claude and Lorenz were descending together, and distributing glasses to the other two. Hilda had connected her phone to the speakers below the television, and was playing some soul-rock at a low volume, while Fae rummaged through their wallet.

"I figured I should pitch for—" Fae was saying.

"Nooo," Claude said instantly, raising a hand to object.

Lorenz smiled, looking sympathetic. "You can ... get us ice cream, or something, some other time. It's just our turn."

Fae blushed and started putting their wallet back into the low pocket on their sweater. It was long and brown, and buttoned up to their chin, with patterns of autumn leaves trailing the base of it.

"Lorenz, would you start a fire?" Hilda asked as she wrapped a decorative blanket around her legs.

"Of course," he said fondly as the music was interrupted by a bloop in Hilda's phone.

When Hilda gave her phone an annoyed look and didn't move to reply to the notification, Claude chuckled, settling himself in a chair beside the couch where Hilda and Fae were seated. "Your brother?" he asked.

"Yes. He can wait," Hilda groaned, moving to sit up on her heels. "Do you have any siblings, Fae?"

"They said they were watching their niece just a few days ago," Claude said very matter-of-factly, and Hilda shot him a look.

"Yes, I have an older brother," Fae agreed with a giggle. "I'm afraid I can't really relate though. There's twenty years between us. He's often living his own life."

"Oh, I wish," Hilda exaggerated. "My brother worries endlessly. Luckily we're close, if I felt like I had to hide things from him, I would be far more annoyed with how overbearing he can be."

Claude frowned. "Wait. Did you tell him we kissed? Because if you did, I definitely need to brace myself before seeing him again."

Lorenz widened his eyes at Claude in a gesture of solidarity as he took a seat in a chair next to Hilda, across from him.

"No," Hilda chuckled. "No, but I did tell Sylvain, and he can't wait for more details."

"Why would you—?" Lorenz was asking, sitting up straight.

"Who's Sylvain?" Fae asked, far more politely, freezing a little at Lorenz's reaction.

Hilda was petting Magic as she side-eyed Lorenz and answered Fae, "A mutual friend." She looked at Lorenz directly, "Why not?"

Lorenz looked shameful. "I guess I thought he wouldn't be understanding."

"I told a friend about our date too," Fae offered, blushing a little when the others looked at them. "He was ... very supportive, if a bit concerned."

Hilda rolled over on the couch to lean against Fae and wrap an arm around them. "Does he live nearby? Maybe we could do something more social in a few weeks? Ease some concerns? Sate some curiosity?"

She winked at Claude, even as his expression barely changed, Hilda could feel how he and Lorenz stiffened at the suggestion. With two sentences she had promised more, and suggested publicity, if only to a crowd of friends.

"He does," Fae answered after a moment's hesitation. "And that might be nice. But my friend's concerns deal with more literal heartbreak than the usual worries about dating."

With that, Fae was turning a little on their side, to half face Hilda as they unbuttoned their sweater, earning raised eyebrows and confused looks from the others. When they shrugged their sweater open, they knew it might take a moment for the others to realize what they were looking at and waited patiently for a reaction. Above their red tank top was a scar that traveled up their chest, blending in with their cleavage.

"You've," Claude took a breath, trying to compose himself and play into their narrative, "you've had your heart broken before then?"

Fae smiled and sat more comfortably as they answered, "Very much so." They sighed. "It can be hard to talk about, so I usually wear clothes to hide the scars."

"Was it an accident?" asked Hilda.

"Oh no," Fae insisted. "Congenital Heart Defect. It was bad ... but I haven't needed another surgery since I was fourteen," the second half of this sentiment was said as if this were a successful or joyous statement, but it was obvious that Fae's present company failed to feel this positivity so soon after being introduced to their condition.

Claude was grappling with all of the benchmarks in life that would be upturned by implied, multiple surgeries before the age of fourteen. It suddenly felt much more understandable that they had missed a few social cues when he and Lorenz had thought they were asking them out.

"You're okay to drink?" Lorenz asked carefully. "I know you weighed in already, but ...?"

Fae nodded happily, "I know how to manage myself." They giggled. "Maybe I shouldn't have introduced this by saying that my friend was concerned for me, but I promise that you don't need to worry about it."

Claude had a million more questions, but as Hilda and Lorenz seemed satisfied, he resolved to look up some things on his own later, and come back to Fae with questions depending on how the rest of the evening went.

The conversation turned into gossip, including thoughts on a celebrity who was recently hospitalized, and then down and through several more seemingly unrelated subjects, until they had looped back around to their personal lives. They were speaking of school, or the lack thereof in so far as Fae was concerned, though they were now a part time student at the university; and the few friendships they had which extended through years and milestones, when the food arrived.

There was some back and forth as they decided where to eat, eventually settling at a table behind the couch, by the wood stove. Fae and Claude quickly abandoning their sweaters, as Hilda placed spoons in the four dishes at the center of the table, Lorenz having left again to care for Magic and gather what they'd need to mix drinks.

Conversation muted for the duration of the meal, and Hilda changed the music to a mix of pop and R&B to ensure the silence didn't equate lethargy.

Closing the containers, finished or otherwise, they abandoned their leftovers to return to the couches and cuddles, Fae and Hilda getting a head start as Lorenz took his dog out and Claude mixed more drinks; sparkling and juice for Hilda, sparkling, juice and rum for the others.

"Here, you pick something," Hilda said, offering her phone to Fae, curious about their taste as she leaned in close around them, an elbow on the back of the couch and her now free hand rested on their leg.

"Oh, well," they piped, trying to think of something appropriate as Claude gave Hilda her glass. They huffed. "I think a lot of what I would be familiar with would be too dramatic ..."

"I bet we would benefit from some drama," Claude supplied.

Fae and Hilda shared a look before they answered, "No, I ... I've got it."

Lorenz returned to the basement to jazz music and Claude hunched over on the couch, obviously kneeled over ... probably both Fae and Hilda. He had to wonder if they were motionless from embarrassment or simply to make a spectacle of their positioning.

"The party starts when I leave, is that it?" he called out, teasing.

"Hardly!" Hilda shouted, squirming until she could catch sight of Lorenz, her eyes going wide. "Is it fucking snowing out there?"

"Not hard," he answered. "It's all melting as it hits the pavement."

Still, she groaned in exasperation, and shifted back onto the couch as Magic approached. "No, no, no! Magic, no! Lorenz, keep your cold wet dog away from me!"

It was more of a request than an order, despite her choice in words. She was on the verge of laughing, but still would have preferred it if she were nowhere near if Magic decided to shake.

"Come on, come here," Claude was saying to the dog, as he was standing and grabbing him around the collar to lead him to where his cage was kept.

"Hold him a minute longer," Lorenz asked kindly. He grabbed a towel from the bathroom and ran it over his dog, feeling a little guilty that Magic wouldn't be set up closer to the fire; though the room had warmed considerably, and dried, he should be fine resting in his cage, as the others were clearly requesting.

After giving Magic some more assurances, the men went to wash their hands and returned to retrieve their drinks, where Fae announced, "We didn't kiss."

Lorenz squinted skeptically.

"We did touch and nuzzle though," they admit next, reaching out to take his hand as he hovered by the couch.

"We thought it would be rude to kiss in your house without you," Claude teased, hovering behind him.

"We?" Hilda squawked, and Claude was laughing while Fae blushed into their drink.

"Okay, Hilda did, specifically," Claude confessed, falling back into the chair beside Fae, with a hand around Lorenz's middle so that he was so focused on steadying his drink — which he still failed to do, some sloshing over his hand — that he could do nothing about finding himself seated in Claude's lap.

Lorenz had been on the verge of leaning into Claude's "embrace" and saying, 'Well, I'm here now.' As it was, he was placing his glass on the side table between him and Fae and shaking his wet hand before rubbing it down the side of Claude's grey pants.

"Thank you for that," he groaned, shifting to an angle as Claude leaned forward, resting his head on Lorenz's right shoulder, closer to the couch.

"Sorry," Claude chuckled, "but I didn't think you'd indulge me if I'd asked."

Lorenz tilted his head toward Fae, who pursed their lips in amusement. With a sigh, he wrapped his right arm around Claude's, still holding his middle, tangling their fingers together. "Neither of us will find out unless you ask next time."

"Hm."

"Alright, let's play a game," Hilda announced, sitting up.

"A board game?" Lorenz asked, trying to think if he had anything useful around, but Hilda was rolling her eyes.

"No, I was thinking a drinking game," she declared, gesturing with her non-alcoholic glass.

"Well that's hardly fair," Fae observed, but Claude was animate, shaking his head.

"That just means there's stakes, right Hilda?" he ensured.

She winked in answer, wiggling her shoulders at first in playful self-satisfaction and then simply to the tune of the music, bumping against Fae.

"So what's the game?" Lorenz asked skeptically.

"If Fae is up for it," Hilda said carefully, "we could play Never Have I Ever?"

Fae bit their lips. "Well I've never played before, but I think I'd be willing to try it? How ..." they hesitated. "What's the worst that could happen?" Lorenz was laughing, and Fae clarified, "That wasn't rhetorical, one of you tell me."

Claude was laughing too now as he insisted, "Embarrassment. We're not looking to hurt you."

"Alright, so I imagine the rules are obvious?" Lorenz confirmed, allowing Fae to nod. "But how do we win?"

"Claude, give me your phone," Hilda requested, and Lorenz had to stand awkwardly while Claude fished out the device, and hand it over. "I'll keep track," she declared, before holding up her hands and wiggling her fingers. "We'll play five rounds. In lieu of drinking, I'll fold my fingers. If I've bent all my fingers before the end of the fifth round, you'll have won—"

"And you can do the dance you learned for that pop song a few years back," Claude announced, and Hilda's mouth hung open in playful incredulity. He winked as he affirmed, "I know you still know it. I've seen you doing little bits of it all the time."

Hilda closed her mouth and leveled Claude with a look before whining, "Well then if I win then you'll all have to do something."

"Besides embarrass ourselves in drink?" Lorenz asked.

"It sounds fair," Fae said skeptically.

"Don't worry," Claude promised. "Three on one? We'll have Hilda dancing in the third round." He leaned further around Lorenz, eyeing Hilda's busy fingers. "What are you doing on my phone?"

"I'm searching for good dares," she admitted, laughing.

Fae was lifting their cocktail glass to their mouth when Lorenz raised a finger to them and whispered, "Don't. Don't drink for thirst. Although there's little strategy in this game, you'll probably want to start with your wits about you."

"Oh! Oh, I've got one," Hilda celebrated. "Alright. Are you guys ready?"

"I suspect I'll be refilling our glasses in a minute," Lorenz mumbled blithely, "but I think we're ready."

"Cheers," Claude answered.

"I’m ready," Fae agreed.

Hilda danced a little again, bobbing her head in thought, before making eye contact with Claude. His silent taunting about her reaction to the music had her scrunch her nose in mock frustration as she declared, "Never have I ever gotten a tattoo."

All eyes went to Fae next, if only for a heartbeat, and it was obvious that the game was really just another method of unraveling their date. Fae didn't mind, but they shrugged with their arms open, unable to claim that experience, but Claude was groaning.

"Cheap shot," he whined, leaning back away from Lorenz to gulp at his glass behind the man in his lap.

"Where?" Fae asked excitedly, and Claude griped further as Hilda echoed the sentiment.

"Yes, where? Show us Claude."

"But I just got comfortable," he complained, squeezing at Lorenz in his lap.

"You can show me later," Fae giggled, but even Claude objected when the room booed.

"No, I'll show you now," he conceded, releasing his grip. Lorenz instantly took his drink and moved to sit between Fae and Hilda.

"Wait," Hilda laughed, "I can't believe I didn't even look at you before."

Claude struck a pose to Lorenz's groaning and Fae's gentle compliment, "Nice."

He pointed at them with a bright smile, "I thought you'd like it."

At that, Claude crossed his arms and pulled his 'Sounds GAY I'm in' t-shirt overhead, blushing but emboldened by Hilda's whistling and the three sets of kind eyes checking him out. He blew Hilda a kiss and turned around, moving to sit on the floor by Fae's legs.

His tattoo was about four or five inches across, and about three up and down. Made to look as if his skin were the clouds, opening on a blue-black sky, where a white moon about the size of a quarter shed light among some stars on other cloudy shapes.

"It's nice," Fae said softly, reaching out to touch Claude's shoulder and rub a thumb over where the ink colored his skin. "An impulsive decision?"

Claude snickered, "No, but I probably should've given it a little more thought. It'd have been nice to find an artist that would've spent more time on it, maybe chosen a constellation for the stars. I've thought about adding to it."

Lorenz nudged Claude's upper arm with his foot as he said, "You know, do as you will, but it is nice as it is, and it would be a shame to cover all your freckles in ink."

As Claude winked at Lorenz, Hilda made an unrelated observation, "Wait are you all wearing plain socks?" They were, black for Fae and Lorenz, and white for Claude, while Hilda's were green with yellow bananas patterned upon them. "For shame," she scolded, partially to pull them away from Lorenz's strangely serious statement and otherwise simply because she was distracted.

Lorenz elbowed Hilda gently, looking from her to Fae as he declared, "Alright, my turn?"

Claude was standing, redressing.

"Never have I ever ... ditched class."

"You fucking loser," groaned Claude, picking up his drink for a second swallow as he reseated himself.

"Well he did earn the first point for your team though," Hilda observed, bending her left thumb and wiggling nine fingers in Claude's direction.

"And, you got me too," Fae said to Lorenz, looking him in the eye as they took a swallow.

Lorenz gasped in mock affront. "Which class?"

Fae tossed their head back for half a second before admitting, "All of them. I missed a lot of class due to illness, and then when I could be there, it just felt pointless." Lorenz's expression was sad, and Claude and Hilda were awwing, so Fae insisted, "It's fine, it's fine. I have my GED now." They held out a finger from the glass they were holding and said forcefully, "And no one congratulate me on that, because it was a shit show."

Lorenz held up his hands as if in defense, and leaned back into Hilda, giving Fae show-room as they turned their head back and forth and realized it was their turn.

"Never have I ever ... seen the ocean?"

"Really?" asked Claude, surprised, but not really sure why. He held up his glass in a silent cheers to Lorenz as they both drank. "We need to bring you and Hilda both to a coast sometime."

Fae blushed. They couldn't believe how easily their dates were opening up, making so many little declarations of interest and vague, non committal plans for the future. They regret not hugging Claude on their way in.

They leaned into Lorenz, who was still leaned onto Hilda, and so Fae couldn't see the pink haired beauty stick out her tongue smugly in Claude's direction.

"Never have I ever been robbed," Claude said to pester Hilda, shaking his head at her as he leaned forward in his seat.

She rolled her eyes as she folded a pinky under her thumb, another point against her.

"Fuck off," she groaned.

"Robbed?" Fae repeated. "Or burgled?"

Claude erupted in laughter, having gone over this with Hilda repeatedly when the incident in question had occurred.

Hilda gestured with her hands so that Lorenz had to sit up away from her, taking Fae with him. "The police report says robbed. I was robbed."

"But she wasn't there for it," Claude clarified. "It was just her car in a parking lot."

"Just my car?" Hilda whined. "I lost a bunch of ... ugh ... Thanks Claude," she pouted.

"Aw, I'm sorry," he promised, putting his glass on the table. "I shouldn't've made you relive that Hilda. Lorenz, kiss her for me."

Lorenz gave Claude a look of confusion, wondering if he was already drunk, but still he shrugged and leaned over to plant a kiss on Hilda's cheek. She rubbed the spot with the three upright fingers on her left hand, giving him a small smile.

"That was round one," Hilda declared putting a point on a tally on Claude's phone, before turning back to her own and changing the music again, this time to some sexual, bouncy, alt-rock. "So that means it's me again." She pressed her right index finger to her lips as she thought, and Lorenz leaned back for Fae to have a better view of the adorable sight. "Never have I ever had stitches."

Lorenz and Fae drank, and then shared a laugh and Lorenz, already feeling ridiculous, said, "Well you two are missing out."

He stretched, thinking for another moment, watching Fae adjust their bangs. "Never have I ever dyed my hair?" When no one moved to drink, he bristled. "Damn it all."

Lorenz drank deep, needing a refill anyway. He stood up to return to the table.

"So ... if no one drinks, then the ... I guess, the 'player' drinks?" Fae asked.

"Yup," Claude confirmed.

Fae nodded, and then snickered as they declared, "Never have I ever owned a dog."

From behind the couch Lorenz groaned. "Come now. You couldn't have at least said pet? I'll drink in a minute."

"You could finish mine and make me one," Claude suggested.

"Finish your own drink," Lorenz insisted with a laugh. “Goddess.”

Claude shrugged. "Alright. Never have I ever ..." He made eye contact with Hilda, because _ she _ was really the game, and she stared him down knowing it too. "... Called someone the wrong name on a date."

"Oh," she scoffed, clearly not truly offended, and less hurt than by whatever she'd lost in her robbery. "How dare you." She lowered her left ring finger. "Another round down.” She said very explicitly, “It is literally impossible to get me dancing by the third round now, Claude."

"Don't worry twinkle toes," Claude teased, "we can still win this."

Hilda tilted her head towards him in challenge. "Never have I ever had a threesome."

"What?" Fae and Lorenz echoed as Claude finished his drink.

"With who?" Lorenz asked, but Claude was shaking his head and tapping his chest.

"That is for-me knowledge," he declared.

"And Hilda," Lorenz said loudly, before mumbling, "apparently."

"Fae, can you please hand Lorenz my glass," Claude asked politely.

"Lorenz don't forget to drink because you own a dog," Hilda insisted, leaning back on the couch. He made deliberate eye contact and swallowed before getting to work on Claude's beverage. "Thank you, dear."

"My turn then?" he confirmed, to a soft chorus of yeses. He smirked, realizing the can of worms Hilda had opened. Tempted into it, he declared, "Never have I ever performed a strip tease."

He looked up from the table to see Hilda drinking and holding up her index finger pointedly on her left hand. Claude was winking. "I'll need you to finish my drink before I can — Wait." His expression turned wicked. "Oh man, that's going to change," he promised Lorenz.

Lorenz hoped he was only blushing to a degree that could be blamed on the alcohol, but when he noticed Fae's equal interest, and rosy complexion, he imagined he must be similarly transparent.

Fae raised their glass as if to drink from thirst again, but stopped themselves, smiling at Claude as Lorenz handed off his drink and passed between them to retake his seat on the couch.

"Never have I ever kissed my best friend."

"Low blow," Claude hollered, and leaned far forward to clink glasses with Lorenz before imploring Hilda, "Cheers us, Hilda."

"Come on," Lorenz called too, and laughing, she complied, drinking and closing her left hand before opening it again and taking hold of Claude's phone.

"Good one," Claude said to Fae with a nod, still laughing. "Alright, alright, alright." He composed himself. "Never have I ever wanted to fuck my boss," Claude said with purpose.

Hilda raised her right hand and folded in her thumb, clarifying for Fae, "It was very brief. We didn't fuck, and he isn't my boss anymore."

But Fae was drinking, and shrugging towards Lorenz, sending Claude into another fit of giggles.

"I am not your boss," Lorenz said very deliberately.

Fae shrugged again, and extended their glass to Lorenz. "Semantics."

"No," Lorenz insisted, standing. "I will refill your drink, but I will not concede that I'm not your boss. I mean. I am not your boss. I'm not their boss." He was pointing at Claude and then Hilda as he moved around to the table, still muttering, "You work for an organization, someone there is your boss."

"Still want to fuck you though," Hilda teased, folding her arms on the back of the couch as she spun to watch him. Magic barked.

Lorenz kept his eyes on his hands and his task, listening to the others gush and giggle. It would be too much for him to see Fae's flush and interested expression now.

"Goddess," Hilda cursed, laughing. "This is fun. Good idea, me."

Lorenz laughed with Fae and Claude at that note.

"It was a good idea," Claude agreed.

"Good," Hilda said smugly. "Because you're about to lose. We're three rounds in now."

"We've time yet," Fae insisted.

"Oho!" Claude peeped. "Fae's feeling the competition. We'll get you yet, Hilda."

"Uh-huh," she grunted, sounding unimpressed. "Never have I ever made a booty call."

Claude drank, and as Lorenz was sitting, handing Fae their glass, he asked, "Do you mean sent one, or answered one?"

Claude held his glass far away from himself, nearly choking on another laugh. Hilda snorted at Lorenz before asserting, "If you're asking, you're drinking. Drink up."

"What the fuck?" Claude insisted through silent laughter, watching Lorenz as he drank.

"Oh fuck off," Lorenz said, wrapping an arm around Fae, "treat your team well if you hope to beat Hilda."

"Leave Fae out of that," Claude groaned, "and offer an explanation for your question."

"Do you want to talk about your threesome?" asked Fae.

"What?" Claude answered, incredulous.

"Then leave him be," they said smugly, wrapping a hand around Lorenz's thigh.

When Claude looked to Lorenz again, he shrugged, at a loss to Fae's new-found loyalty.

"Hilda, let me join your team," Claude begged.

"No way," she laughed. "Work out the problems on your end."

"Shit," Lorenz cursed. "I'm so sorry Claude." And it was obvious to both of them that he was preemptively regretting the torment he was about to unleash with his turn.

"It's fine," he groaned, mostly serious. "Hit me with it."

"Never have I ever accidentally said I love you to someone."

Claude placed a hand on his heart. "Too real." He drank, and then offered an explanation to Fae, "I was on the phone late one night with this person I'd known for a few years. We were friends, but like ... not close. However, I was so used to being up late talking with an ex of mine, that in my delirium, I told this friend that I loved them, and then had to play it off like a loved their friendship, when really ..."

"It wasn't even that," Fae offered.

"Exactly," Claude groaned. "Anyway, they and I aren't friends anymore."

Claude grimaced at Lorenz. "You didn't even get Hilda with that one."

"Didn't know I wouldn't," Lorenz professed, and Claude shrugged.

"I think," Fae pressed, "mine should be more fun." They smiled affectionately at Claude before looking down across the couch, blushing as they tried not to think of the nonsense about to come out of their mouth. "Never have I ever sent a sext."

Hilda folded in her right pinky finger, and Claude and Lorenz both drank. Claude squinted as if in confusion as he asked, "So is that like a boundary or ...?"

Fae bit their lips and shook their head. "Didn't really ... have a situation that called for it, or anyone who'd have wanted to, I guess."

For how boisterous he'd been throughout the night, Claude's intimate smile was disarming. "Maybe we'll talk about that another time." Fae chuckled, nodding, and almost instantly Claude was looking smug again. He raised his glass and gave the others a wicked wink as he declared, "Never have I ever faked an orgasm."

Hilda folded in another finger, and Lorenz and Fae looked at each other in confusion when they saw that they each were drinking. Claude frowned deeply as he decided to settle his confusion on Lorenz, "Wait seriously?"

"It's not like she was going to check the condom," Lorenz offered by way of explanation, shrugging.

"Was this a girlfriend or just someone you dated?" Hilda asked, leaning forward.

"I ... shouldn't say," Lorenz answered, poorly, kicking himself for it.

"Was it—" Claude started

"Don't guess," Lorenz begged.

"Okay," Claude conceded, looking sympathetic.

"You can talk about it if you want to though," Hilda insisted, touching Lorenz's arm, though he was shrinking in on himself, shaking his head.

"_Please_," he groaned. "Should we not be more concerned that three of the four of us have had to do so?"

"That is fucking embarrassing," Claude agreed.

Hilda scoffed. "Are you suggesting that your ego could handle it if someone just told you they weren't feeling it?"

Claude gave her look of disbelief, and maybe disappointment. "Uh, _ yes _. Please fucking tell me if ever we're caught in similar circumstances. If you're going to give me a reason to be prideful, I'd really want to believe that reason was honest."

Fae was nodding, but looking at their feet, and Lorenz seemed distracted, however Hilda winked at Claude at that, and he pouted, feeling silly. Still, Hilda only had two fingers left extended on her right hand, a veritable peace sign. It would be a relief to finish their game, and a delight to win it.

"Come on, let's move on," Claude requested.

"Last round!" Hilda announced, winking at Lorenz. "Hope you're ready."

"We're ready," Fae answered.

Hilda tilted her head thoughtfully, licking her lips as she adjusted her position and dragged out the inevitable.

"Never have I ever read three novels in one day."

"It was a good series," Claude insisted.

"Hospital waiting rooms," Fae explained.

They both drank.

"Never have I ever gone through someone's phone without their permission," Lorenz declared, and when no one moved in answer, he tossed his head back in a groan. "Again?" he piped, before sipping at his glass. He would've suspected either Hilda or Claude to be so curious.

"Oh, come on Fae," Claude begged. "If you get Hilda, then I can win it."

"Bitch, you think?" Hilda taunted.

"Fucking know it," Claude insisted.

Fae looked between the two of them, at Hilda's large hooped earrings, and Claude's glittering little jewelry, and thought of Hilda's compliment earlier in the week. With a nod, they resolved themselves to say, "Never have I ever given someone a piercing."

"Nope!" Hilda announced smugly, falling into a fit of giggles, her victory secured. Lorenz and Claude were groaning in defeat, shaking their heads at Fae, who pouted apologetically, and drank.

"Fuck," Claude hissed. "Well," he conceded, standing as he raised his half full glass, "never have I ever lied while playing this game."

The other three were jeering as Claude swallowed three times, and finished his beverage, falling back into his seat.

"You fucking jackass," Hilda spat, still smiling, "don't try to take this victory from me with some self-depreciating bullshit."

"Wouldn't think of it," Claude promised. "What's this dare you've cooked up?"

Hilda tossed Claude his phone, and then enjoyed a sip of her juice, moving to sit in the other chair beside the couch, at a better angle from which to observe the other three.

"So," Hilda hummed, blushing in spite of herself, "keeping your underclothes—"

"Oh, Goddess," Lorenz groaned.

"—give your outfit to the person to your left," Hilda finished.

"Oh no," Fae giggled.

"Is that too forward?" Hilda asked them carefully.

"No, no," Fae insisted, looking to Lorenz at their left, thinking of the near foot of height between them, and then to Claude. "I'll be alright."

"Fuck," Claude cursed again, standing. "Alright."

He pulled his shirt overhead and dropped it in Fae's lap, and suddenly the gathering was a mess of fabric and laughter, and heckling from Hilda.

"You're both so boring," she groaned, when Claude and Lorenz found themselves down to grey and black boxer briefs.

"As if a certain amount of etiquette isn't expected the first time you undress in front of a date," Lorenz retorted, handing Claude his half-folded pile of clothing.

She leveled him with wide eyes. "Did you expect us to be undressing you?"

"I figured it was a possibility," Lorenz said more softly, and Fae was blushing so deeply as they stole his attention and offered him their clothes.

"I did not," they admit quietly. Even so, the others thought that if there were an etiquette that Fae had met it quite readily, regardless; left between Claude and Lorenz in a pink bra and black panties. With a glance at Claude, Lorenz could tell that like him, he was very tempted to forgo the game to take Fae in his arms, and offer assurances that the rest of this silliness did not quite allow.

"Oh, Goddess," Lorenz groaned again, pulling Fae's jeans up to his waist so they sat like capri pants, just below his knees. Meanwhile Claude's shirt fit easily over Fae's ample bosom, and Claude was abandoning Lorenz's undershirt on the chair, being unwilling to stretch the garment beyond repair over his much wider chest.

Claude's pants could fall off of Fae's hips if they moved in just the wrong way, but they were dressed first, and pressed past Claude and Lorenz to sit in Hilda's old position on the couch, stretching out to watch and extend their arms to where Hilda could reach out to touch their hand.

As Lorenz fit Fae's tank top overhead, Claude made a show of sitting down to pull Lorenz's pants just to his knees, the garment being too narrow to cover any more of his legs. He shot Hilda a look.

"You fucking string bean," Claude laughed, reaching last for the green and white stripe button up Lorenz had been wearing and pretending to try and pull that around himself — where, again, his arms were too thick and shoulders too wide. "But -?" Claude pouted. "How am I supposed to-?"

"Don't tear it," Lorenz said mockingly.

"Hilda," Claude whined.

She shrugged. "I won. You can sit like that for an hour or two."

Claude groaned, red faced and embarrassed as he hugged Lorenz's shirt in front of his stomach.

Fae shifted on the couch until Lorenz could sit with their legs down over his lap, as Hilda set down her empty glass and walked across to Claude.

"Don't be a sore loser," she teased, stroking a hand across his face and leaning in for a kiss, and that was new. Claude was used to a back and forth with Hilda, and she knew it, but this was more satisfying than being boastful. His green eyes blew wide, before fluttering closed, letting his lips move pliant and amiable against Hilda’s affection.

Pulling Hilda down into his lap, catching her in a cradle, Claude hardly felt he’d lost anything, their recent competition quickly forgotten.

Rather than getting heated, their kisses and petting grew more sluggish as time wore on. Hilda offered to drive Fae and Claude home, but when Lorenz offered his home as a place to rest, it was hard for anyone to object. There was a guest room, and at least two couches wherein they could find privacy, but still, after some more sharing and changing of clothes, and Magic released to his home, they crowded into Lorenz’s room, arms extended in awkward positioning and necessary embraces to ensure sufficient space on the bed.

Fae had suggested they meet on a Friday with the intention of neglecting proper rest, although they’d anticipated it being for far more indecent happenstance than what had actually transpired. Still, they had a hard time imagining carnal activities feeling any more intimate than being pressed here between their dates. They scratched the fingertips of their left hand gently on Hilda’s scalp, humming softly as she shook her head, half in a dream state, nuzzling closer into Fae’s neck.

When Fae shifted a little more to accommodate Hilda’s proximity, resting their chin in her loose pink hair, they felt the gentle tug of Lorenz’s right hand upon their breast, and the general weight of their legs upon their own. Claude was beyond Hilda on the opposite edge of the bed, where Fae could see that he too hadn’t yet drifted to sleep. He rested on his right arm, bent at an angle under his head and a pillow, his left extended across Hilda to hold Fae around their shoulder, stroking his thumb quietly over the sleeve of his t-shirt.

The bed was too hot, and Claude felt like he might be kicked to the floor at any moment, but he was struck, drawn in and pinned in place by the unfair tenderness of the others. When Fae blew him a kiss, he felt his face tighten affectionately, and leaned in to press a kiss to the back of Hilda’s head before winking at Fae. Their smile as they closed their eyes, leaving him for the safety of sleep already ensorcelling Hilda and Lorenz, caused him to sigh.

Somehow sex had been seen as a metric of compatibility, and been the thing he and Hilda had been seeking as assurance from other partners through apps and networking, but chance and devotion had led him here instead; to a place where he could just be, with partners with whom he could find deep and comforting repose. He would spend every night with the risk of being kicked to the floor for how his heart felt now, for this moment of fragile security. But maybe it would be better to start hoping for a reason to buy a bigger bed in six months.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! I hope this was as much fun to read as it was to write! I'd love a Comment or Kudos!


	4. F Is For Friends Who Do Stuff Together

Lorenz groaned. His neck and shoulders were sore, and as he blinked open his eyes, he suspected the others in his bed were going to feel much the same when they roused. His whole left arm was asleep, and he shifted carefully to try and push himself up with his right.

With a slip, he failed, and found himself back on his side, bouncing the bed. Wincing, he took a second to breathe, and then a moment longer to prepare himself to face Fae, who was rolling around to face him. When he opened his eyes again, he saw that not only they, but Claude and Hilda too, were staring at him in varying degrees of wakefulness.

"Sorry," Lorenz blurted awkwardly, letting himself fall further into the bed. "Just stiff."

With half a mind to inquire into the nature of his stiffness, Fae reached out a hand to Lorenz, but caught up in his embarrassment at having woken the others, he was forcing himself away with speed. He was spun around and sat up, facing away from the bed, when he felt Fae's hand rest on his lower back.

With a sigh, Lorenz willed himself to not melt into the touch, thinking too hard of his own morning breath, and needing to give his guests space and nourishment. As such, he missed the intent in Fae's eyes when he glanced over his shoulder, taking one more mental picture of the could-be lovers in his bed as he stood, and offered them caffeine.

With winter coming, work and school and family were filling much of their free time. They managed to meet several times over the following two months, but even these meetings were only for a few hours at a time: a dinner, a coffee, a nap, working on reports and crafts and essays while sitting in the same space. As a result, most of this early development of their relationship had fallen to texts and late night phone calls.

It should have been easy, therefore, for any of them to suggest that they take some time for themselves when Fae's classes finished for the season, but nerves and manners won over any desires of intimacy when it was suggested that this would be a good time to meet their friends; and then the event had started to explode with interest. There were so many people they hadn't seen for weeks and months, or whom they had only seen in the context of work and fundraisers, who were now looking for an invitation, that eventually Hilda had to very seriously say no more, and close the informal guest list.

In the end, they were going to be a crowd of eighteen, and intended to sit three to a seat, six to a booth at The Crested Sparrow, which she'd called in advance, even after Raphael, who worked there, had assured her that he and Lorenz could make the proper arrangements with the pub.

"So, you have that big outing tonight."

Fae's father caught them leaving the bathroom after a shower, dressed and with their hair up in a towel. They threw a smirk his way as they conceded the obvious, "I do."

"With your ... dates."

Fae’s expression was soft as they answered, "Yes. Do you want to talk about it _ now_, because ... I have, like, twenty minutes?"

"No," he assured them, straightening his posture. "I don't think there'd be much to say at this point anyway..." He leaned on their doorframe while they busied themselves. "You've seemed happier, lately." Though they smiled, they dared not respond, they knew what was coming before he asked, "When will I get to meet them?"

"Dad," Fae begged, looking up from their dresser.

"Alright, alright," he conceded, looking away. "Too soon, I guess." He caught them in a hug as they moved to leave their room, which Fae easily returned.

"You'll text me if you won't be home tonight?"

Fae nodded at him as they separated, promising, "I'll text you."

Around the corner from The Crested Sparrow, Marianne was parking her SUV, smiling reassuringly at Dimitri in the passenger seat as he watched her hands with a sort of reverence. She reached onto the dash to grab her gloves, brown with white polka dots, and little lace bows on the side.

“Are you sure you want to hide it, beloved?” he asked again. She could tell he was trying not to sound too put out, and she dropped the gloves in her lap to also look at her hands, and the new jewel on her ring finger. She traced over it with her index finger when she sought his gaze again, finding it this time, and tilting her head insistently.

“Yes, dear,” her voice was soft and delicate, and full of love. “I love you, and I’m proud to wear it — I don’t want to take it off,” she laughed, twisting the ring on her hand and squishing herself back into her seat, “but this night was supposed to be about my friends. It wouldn’t feel right to me, to redirect that attention.”

Dimitri smiled with more warmth than previously, loving this about his fiance, even knowing that their friends would be eager to know and to otherwise be supportive.

“Of course,” he conceded readily, watching Marianne adjust her gloves over her hands and her ring. “At least everyone will be together, if you’d like to invite them to another outing,” he smiled bright enough that his one eye closed, and his posture relaxed when Marianne reached out to adjust his hair, “where we could make our announcement?”

“That sounds lovely,” Marianne agreed, her gloved hand finding his cheek as he opened his eye and started unbuckling himself so that he could lean closer to her.

They kissed for a few minutes, each careful with the other, Dimitri linking their fingers together so that he could feel the solid metal encircling her finger.

“I would do anything for this smile of yours,” he assured her when she pulled away. “Wait a thousand years…”

“Nothing so long,” she promised, sounding bright. She trailed her thumb over his bottom lip as she teased, “But a few hours, at least.”

Hilda greeted them animatedly when they entered the pub, and was considerate about not instantly whisking Marianne away as they found seats and conversation.

Caspar arrived later than Fae was expecting. He was red-faced and on the verge of an apology when they raised a hand to cut him off, and greet him.

“Hey Caspar.”

“Hi Fae!” He pulled them into a quick hug and held their shoulders as he tilted his head and explained, “Lin’s already drooping, so in addition to maybe being late—”

“We’re not late,” Fae assured him, with an affectionate smile. They had been hopeful to arrive in advance of their partners’ guests, to take some of the social obligation off of Linhardt and Lysithea, but they were still on track to arrive at the scheduled time, which wasn’t the worst outcome.

“—we might need to leave early.”

Fae pouted and nodded, peering into the old hatchback to confirm that the passenger seat was empty.

“I’m hoping dinner will perk him back up,” Caspar continued, “and he’s hoping to take a nap at the table,” he added, sounding skeptical, his expression betraying fond annoyance and heartfelt concern, “so…”

Clasping his shoulder with a warm smile, Fae agreed, “We’ll see how it goes.”

Caspar sighed in relief as he nodded and bounced around the vehicle to the driver’s side.

“Fae!” Linhardt called out, as if in protest, when they got into the passenger seat, even before they were able to look over their shoulder. When they made eye contact with him, their nervous expression gave way to amusement as they caught sight of Lysithea rolling her eyes from where she sat behind them.

“I’m in trouble?” Fae asked.

“Yes,” Linhardt insisted, as Caspar started the vehicle. “What’s this I hear about Lizzie texting your partners for the past week, while Caspar and I are only meeting them tonight?”

“You just _ had _ to gloat,” Fae chided, shooting Lysithea a look.

“I wasn’t gloating,” Lysithea objected.

“You were,” Lin said softly.

“I was simply telling Linhardt what I knew about Claude’s not-for-profit,” she finished. “It came up naturally.”

“Naturally,” Fae said, laughing.

“It doesn’t matter,” Linhardt pressed. “What does matter is, she’s gotten to know them, while I’ve had to wait.”

“It only happened because Lysithea wanted advice on how to articulate herself on the local radio.”

“So I’m meant to feel unaccomplished, as well as unappreciated?” Linhardt swooned dramatically, and Caspar snorted in the front seat.

“You’re six months away from your masters,” Lysithea groaned, elbowing him, rolling her eyes. “I was just talking about a medical study that ended up not even happening.”

“Hey now,” Caspar warned gently, “no negative subjects.”

“What?” Fae squawked, half laughing.

“Caspar seems to have already decided we’re going to be the weirdos, at this event,” Linhardt explained, “and he’d rather us not be the _ depressing weirdos_.”

“I never said—”

“Weirdos?” Linhardt repeated, sounding amused, and Fae and Lysithea failed to suppress their chuckling.

“Don’t worry, Cas,” Fae said with a raise of their eyebrows. “From what I gather, there is going to be a number of equally colorful characters at the pub.”

“I just…” Caspar hesitated, sighing, “you know I get defensive.”

“I wouldn’t invite you anywhere we’re not welcome,” Fae promised.

The Crested Sparrow was sandwiched between a concert hall and an art supply store. A brick construction, with a narrow opening showing off four tables at the front. The interior led into the wider rear of the establishment, where booths lined the back and one side of a half-wall, opposite four pool tables.

When Fae and their friends arrived, mostly everyone else was already chatting around pitchers of beer and virgin mojitos.

“Fae!” Hilda called out in greeting, starting a cheer around the tables that certainly embarrassed those arriving with Faedolyn, even before Hilda skipped to her feet and wrapped her arms around them.

“Hi guys,” Fae was saying over Hilda’s shoulder, to at least Lorenz and Claude, who were approaching, if not also to the unfamiliar crowd at the tables, when they found themselves pulled off balance, Hilda dipping them as she couldn’t quite her taller partners, and kissing them dramatically.

“Oh my!” Ferdinand called out, while Mercedes and Raphael were cheering again, and Leonie whistled encouragingly.

Hilda’s eyes were crinkled and pleased when she stood, and she squeezed at one of Fae’s hands as she moved aside so that Lorenz could approach. His eyes darted across the newcomers and Fae’s flush cheeks, as he declared, “You’ll get nothing so dramatic from me.”

Fae, Hilda and Claude all chuckled at his statement, and Fae shook their head. “Even just that sentence was more dramatic than Hilda’s kiss.”

Lorenz rolled his eyes as he agreed, “Well, in that case—” He leaned down for a chaste press of lips against their own, a hand on their shoulder. “I missed you.”

“So much for first impressions,” Claude observed, so that Fae and Lorenz looked at him.

“Oh,” Fae laughed. “You’re rosy.” They suspected that he was easily blushing the most of all of them, and reached out to his hands to assure him. “We don’t have to kiss.”

“Yeah?” Claude taunted, pulling them close.

“Yeah,” Fae insisted, even as he left a quick peck on the side of their forehead.

Lorenz hummed, a soft amused noise, and addressed Fae’s friends as they gathered around the middle of their three booths, reaching for a pitcher, “Who’s drinking?”

“I will,” Fae answered, leaning away from Claude, and Lorenz nodded as he looked to the others.

“No?” He confirmed with Linhardt who was shaking his head. “No,” and again with Caspar who held up his keys with a shrug and a grimace, as if in answer. He looked last to Lysithea, who frowned.

“I might like something sweeter?” she returned.

“Of course,” Lorenz chuckled, in spite of himself, as he offered Fae a glass. “I don’t mean to keep you from ordering.”

Hilda was aside amongst two of the green haired arrivals, one mint and the other verdant, and neither the neon of Fae’s pale hair. She addressed the man closest to her, “You must be Linhardt.”

Linhardt smiled stupidly as he asked as if to confirm, “Claude?”

Hilda tossed her head back with a happy roll of her eyes as she asked, “Is that who Fae talks about the most?”

Linhardt shook his head, feeling Caspar lean in around him from his opposite side, as he clarified, “I was just being funny.”

“Funny or loopy?” Caspar asked skeptically, wrapping a hand around Lin’s upper arm. “I think you should sit down.”

“Fine,” Linhardt agreed, his tone exasperated, but his smile steady as he made parting eye contact with Hilda, allowing Caspar to drag him along to a booth.

“Wait!” Lysithea shouted as Lin started to bend into the seat. She moved to stand next to him and crossed her arms. “I would appreciate being able to sit first, so that no one can ask me to do anything.”

Hilda placed a hand on her chest as she expressed her approval, looking from Lysithea to Claude, “A girl after my own heart.”

“I was about to say.” Claude teased, bumping Hilda with an elbow. He nodded to one his own guests. “Cyril, join me.”

“Sure,” Cyril agreed, smiling politely at the booth he was leaving to scoot in ahead of Claude.

Of the three booths, the one closest to the pool tables sat Lysithea, Fae and Linhardt to one side, and Cyril, Claude and Caspar on the other.

Caspar and Linhardt were obviously trying to have something of a hushed conversation, so when Fae took their seat, they looked from them to Claude, before beaming at Cyril instead, greeting him, “It’s nice to meet you, Cyril.”

He and Lysithea were each reaching for the menus by the wall of the booth, hands brushing as he snapped away into place, wincing apologetically. Nodding at Fae, Cyril smiled, bashful, and leaned forward on his elbows. “And you.” He cocked his head at the man to his left, “Claude’s always got a lot of nice things to say about ya.”

“You know,” Claude droned, a hand curled to his cheek as if he were appraising his friend, “I’ve known Cyril about ten years—”

“Twelve,” Cyril interrupted, lowering his eyebrows.

“Twelve?” Claude repeated, dropping his hands to the table, sitting up straight. “No.”

“Yeah,” Cyril insisted, laughing a little. “I moved here when I was eight,” he explained, as Claude’s eyes darted as if reviewing mental filing cabinets. “You came to my tenth birthday—” he said more emphatically, adding as an aside to Fae and Lysithea, “—it’s a big one, for Almyrans.” He prodded at Claude further, blushing now as he wondered whether Claude were pulling these details out of him on purpose. “My uncle took us to that bird sanctuary?”

“Shit,” Claude said, a smug smile of bright teeth. “Okay, twelve years.” He winked at Fae, and then acted as if he were starting again, holding his hands out for emphasis, “So I’ve known Cyril about twelve years — and I’ve never seen him blush so hard because of an accidental hand touch.”

Claude was making eye contact with Lysithea who blushed and quickly looked down at the menu, while the other three chuckled with differing degrees of enthusiasm. Fae felt that they could tell that Claude was diverting, not wanting Cyril to risk repeating whatever nice things Claude had said about them, but it was good to see this side of him — of both of them, as he and Cyril teased each other.

“Wow,” Cyril exaggerated, sitting up now too, stretching back from the table with the base of his palms pressed into the edge of it, quickly red. “Wow, thanks.” He hazarded a glance at Lysithea, and made very fleeting eye contact with the woman, who seemed determined to ignore that this had just happened. He sighed, elbowing Claude, side-eyeing him, “Thanks for that.”

“You’re welcome.” Claude somehow managed to be both sarcastic and reassuring. He elbowed Cyril back so that it was a duel of sorts, and Cyril was laughing in a more relaxed way.

“You know the time I remember seeing you absolutely red-faced?” he asked, taunting.

“Oh no!” Claude raised his hands away in defeat, bringing Fae and Lysithea to giggles.

“Yeah,” Cyril scrunched his nose at Claude, and turned to the others. “This guy—”

“Please don’t,” Claude begged, leaning forward on the table to catch Cyril’s eye, his right hand fisted in a ball and his left encircling it.

“—thought it would be a good idea to—”

“Oh, take pity,” Claude groaned, tossing his head back, so that Cyrill was laughing now too, shaking his head.

“You’re making whatever I have to say seem way more interesting than it is,” Cyril promised him. He looked from Claude to Lysithea again, and saw that his reputation hadn’t entirely soured, and so conceded, “But I’ll hold off if it means so much to you.”

Fae was still laughing as Claude exhaled in relief, a hand pressed to his heart. He looked back to them as he asserted, “My secrets are safe.”

“For now,” Fae allowed, sipping their beer.

Claude smiled, bright, genuine. “I used to make really bad decisions,” he sighed whimsically, “that story could’ve been anything.”

“Used to?” Fae teased, as a server came around, taking additional orders of drinks and checking up on their little crowd.

Lysithea was the first to speak when the server departed. “So, Cyril — what do you do for a living?”

He grimaced, uncertain of his path in life. “Lately I’ve been working part time for Claude in community outreach — helping families from Almyra settle in. Mostly I’ve been translating rental agreements, helping find family doctors, driving kids to and from soccer practice.” He chuckled, self-depreciating. “Barely a job.”

Lysithea was frowning, gesturing with a hand as she assured him, “It sounds like a lot of hard work to me.”

Cyril shrugged, turning his attention to his hands as he massaged his left thumb absently, “I used to do a lot more manual labour…” He looked up again, smiling. “Helping people is rewarding, but the way the money in the background works … still confuses me to no end. I think that might be why this doesn’t really feel like work.”

“That might be something Lysithea could talk to you about,” Fae suggested, speaking slowly and shooting their friend a glance.

“No,” Lysithea scoffed. “It’s boring,” she assured Cyril. “I promise you don’t want to understand it anyway.”

“She’s been studying economics,” Fae explained. They gave Claude a confused look when he frowned.

Lysithea rolled her eyes as she piggy-backed off Fae’s statement. “I had hoped that working as an auditor or civil servant would offer me some measure of assurance that people with money to burn were actually using donations for their intended purposes … but the clerical work I’m doing as part of a placement has been … less than encouraging.” She shrugged. “What brought me into it was actually hearing about how many medical organizations put money to waste. So many people hoping for treatments just seeing their dollars wasted on personal purchases by inhumane suits.”

“You’re not in the medical field?” Claude asked suddenly.

“Oh, no,” Lysithea said, understanding. “I was going to be a consultant for that medical study—”

“Going to be?”

Lysithea shook her head. “We didn’t hit our goal in time, so the university backed out, and now it just … isn’t happening. The money we raised is already going back to the donors. We’d have to look into private funding now if we wanted to start over, and that’s too big of a commitment.”

“How much would you need?” Claude asked, his voice softening.

“Claude,” Fae warned, gently.

Lysithea looked from one to the other, and sighed. “A lot. Twelve thousand.”

Claude’s eyes widened a bit, and he nodded. He pulled out his phone. “Well, _ I _ don’t have twelve thousand lying around, but…”

“But nothing,” Lysithea said quickly, “it’s fine. We can try again next year.”

Cyril took this opportunity to scold Claude about occasionally worrying about the expenses of his own organization but suddenly implying he could pull thousands of dollars out of thin air. This roped Lin and Caspar back into the conversation with talk of debts and loans and the intangible value of a dollar.

Felix had downed a shot or three before arriving at the pub. He had been put under the impression that he was going to be spending the night with Sylvain’s friends, which wasn’t the most unpleasant way to spend an evening, and most of them wouldn’t usually even bother him with small talk, but having anything to ease the stress of these curt conversations was something he welcomed.

Yet when he and Sylvain arrived, to a chorus of cheers and welcome, he pulled Sylvain aside without even making it to the tables.

“Sylvain.”

“Felix?” His tone was innocent, and his curiosity was genuine, so Felix sighed and deflated from angry to irritated.

“You said I wouldn’t know anyone here.”

Sylvain smiled, first as a mask of reassurance as he looked back out over the tables, and then in an earnest way as he returned his attention to Felix, reaching out to hold his elbows. “I forgot Mercedes was coming, I _ didn’t _ know Dimitri would be here, and I honestly didn’t even remember you knew Leonie.”

Felix threw his head back in exasperation and Sylvain moved to straighten Felix’s collar, promising him, “You look great. We have a ride home. Try to unwind with the rest of us.”

When Felix nodded, Sylvain let him go, happy to force the others to redistribute with teases and exaggerated promises, so that they could sit side by side.

“Weren’t we supposed to be meeting someone’s partners?” Leonie asked, hoping she sounded more confused than irritated as she swiveled out the side of her seat to look back at the other two booths.

Ignatz shrugged next to her, swallowing a mouthful of beer. “The night is young, let them unwind.” He chuckled. “You know three of them anyway.”

Leonie groaned as she settled back into her seat and looked for understanding from the others at her table; beside Ignatz was Flayn, and across from her Dimitri sat in the corner, his blind eye to the wall, next to Marianne and finally, Raphael. “It still seems rude that none of them sat at our table.”

“I’m sure we’ll move around,” Dimitri insisted. “It is not as though you are glued to your seat.”

Setting down an empty glass, Raphael wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and added, “Besides, we can make our own fun, at least after dinner. I bet I can get us served first.”

He was halfway out of his seat, Marianne giggling, when Ignatz ensured that Raphael realized that he, or someone, would need to take food orders from the tables before anything like that might happen.

Squished between Ferdinand and Hilda, Lorenz couldn’t be subtle about pulling his phone from his pocket, but the others seemed satisfied to continue their conversation without him regardless; a baseless assessment and raucous teasing of how him being single for so long had somehow escalated his desirability into attracting three partners, and that this was proven by virtue that seeing more of _ some people _ made their company repulsive.

Lorenz leaned back to read Claude’s message away from any prying eyes.

**Claude (6:56 PM):** Don't react!! Lysithea's medical study got cancelled. They lost their funding. They could go through with it if the money was there.

He resisted the urge to look up and around Sylvain’s head at the others, and typed out a quick response.

**Lorenz (6:56 PM):** How much?

**Claude (6:56 PM):** 12k

He frowned at the figure. It was large enough that he could foresee protests about him offering to match it, and still small enough that it would barely be two percent of his savings account. It reminded him of arguments with friends and partners past, and his own internal struggles with whether to be rid of the entirety of his wealth, and the life his father had built for him, the way Sylvain had.

**Lorenz (6:59 PM):** I could do that.

**Claude (7:00 PM):** I’ll encourage her to talk to you about it …

**Claude (7:01 PM):** You okay?

Lorenz looked up to ensure that Claude wasn’t looking at him, or anyone else for that matter, but the conversation at his table continued, and only Sylvain, immediately across from him, did look politely, reservedly concerned.

**Lorenz (7:01 PM):** Console me later.

**Claude (7:01 PM):** Sure thing

He smiled at his phone and then at Sylvain, who nodded as Lorenz drank another mouthful of beer.

Sylvain asked, “So when are we going to meet Ferdinand’s boyfriend?”

“He’s away on business,” Ferdinand answered, and his last three words were said in time with him as if in cheers, by Mercedes, Lorenz and Hilda.

“He’s always away on business.” Sylvain drank from his glass at an angle that was almost provocative.

After a roll of his eyes Lorenz was gesturing with his glass as he shifted closer to Ferdinand, because Marianne was squishing in next to Hilda. “Except when he isn’t,” he elbowed Ferdinand unintentionally, but suspected it could never be explained away as such. “But even then, you won’t meet him, because you can’t get Ferdie to leave his house.”

Ferdinand whined, now redder than his hair, “We end up with a lot of catching up to do.”

Leaned out into the table, Hilda raised her glass towards Ferdinand, “Cheers.”

Mercedes clinked her beer to Hilda’s virgin drink. “It’s rather sweet.”

Hilda’s eyes widened, as she did not think sweet was the right word for Ferdinand’s sexually dynamic relationship. She was surprised to find a glance of solidarity from Sylvain and Felix both.

Focusing on Mercedes, Ferdinand relaxed and picked up his phone. “I _ do _ have pictures from his last visit.”

“Oh?” Mercedes peeped encouragingly.

Shortly, Ferdinand was holding his phone out in the middle of the group, showing off a photo of a gaunt man with short black hair, half a grin on a tired face with dark eyebags, as he held a scarf aloft. The table held their collective breath.

“He’s…” Hilda couldn’t decide.

Felix, however, more drunk than he was expecting, finished a mouthful of beer and blurted, critically, “He looks like death.”

He very quickly realized that this was a very wrong and unnecessary thing to say about a friend’s boyfriend when the table seemed to gasp on Ferdinand’s behalf. Mercedes reached out to scroll through the photos on Ferdinand’s phone, which he continued to hold outstretched.

“Because he’s pale?” Lorenz asked, pointing at one photo and then turning his wrist upwards. “Because I am paler than this man.”

Sylvain leaned into the table on his right side, close to Felix, as if trying to physically shield him from his own idiocy. He laughed, a hopeless tone to it. “Because he looks like he hasn’t slept since the thirteenth century!”

Hilda raised her head in a snapping motion to steal his attention, unimpressed. “Well then you just don’t know Ferdinand.”

“I don’t know,” Mercedes droned, “I think he looks nice. Classically handsome. Like Gregory Peck.” She raised her hands excitedly. “Oh! Or Yul Brynner!”

“He does seem more pleasing to the eyes the longer you look at him,” Lorenz agreed, drinking again.

“It feels weird to say now,” Felix began, elbowing Sylvain’s arm back so that he started to fall face first into the table and had to stop himself, “but when I said he looked like death, I didn’t even mean that as an insult.”

Sylvain tossed his head back, smiling, mirthless and amused as he rounded on Felix, “Oh sure, just abandon me for team horny-on-main.”

Felix scoffed, rolling his eyes, also in better humour. “As if you’re _ever_ subtle in your attractions.”

Accepting Ferdinand’s phone from him to continue scrolling, Mercedes asked, “Did you find this sexy vampire by chance or deliberately?”

“By chance, and I’m **so pleased**,” Ferdinand said, unable to keep from gesturing just as enthusiastically. “His name is Hubert. He has the most handsome hands I have ever seen, and he sounds like Vincent Price smoked two packs a day for twenty years.”

Hilda and Marianne laughed. Wrapping an arm around Marianne to ensure she had sufficient space on their seat, Hilda cheered, “Good for you.”

“Oh!” Mercedes peeped again in excitement, tapping the table with her free hand. “This is the cutest one! You can really see how happy you two are.”

The photo in question featured the pair of them, seated on a couch in an unfamiliar living room, Hubert lounging with his legs swung over Ferdinand’s lap as he sat upright, clearly holding the camera. Hubert was the most rosy he’d been in any of the photos, a sheepish smile on his thin lips. He was wearing what might’ve equated to an ugly holiday sweater, except that it was black, white and grey, featuring patterns of bats and coffins around the message on the chest: Drop Dead Gorgeous. In the photo, Ferdinand’s expression was all sunshine, as usual.

Ferdinand smiled, obviously caught up in his memories. He pouted a little as he explained, “This was the first one we took after he got back last time. He’s blushing because I got him—”

“Laid!” exclaimed an eager, high pitched voice.

“—that sweater,” Ferdinand finished. He leaned forward, aghast, so he could have a better vantage to look across the table at the pair of laughing women. “Marianne?!”

Hilda held both of Marianne’s hands, bouncing them while the blue-haired woman blushed deep pink and stuttered through her hysterics, “I’m so— I’m so so— I’m so sorry.” By now the rest of the table was laughing too, and Marianne was in tears, wiping at one of her eyes. “You know I never get to make jokes like that…”

“Don’t **apologize**,” Ferdinand said with half a laugh, clearly more shocked than amused. “I’m just … surprised.”

“Good one,” Sylvain praised, raising his glass to Marianne. “Good timing.”

“Thank you,” she peeped, moving to pull her hands away from Hilda and finding her friend’s grip unyielding.

“The sweater didn’t quite get the chuckle out of him that I’d hoped for,” Ferdinand went on, adjusting his hair as Mercedes handed his phone down the line to Sylvain and Felix, “but he did seem pleased.” He added, shy, “I do love his laugh.”

“_Alright_, fuck,” Sylvain groaned, fond. “I take back my bullying.” He winked. “Stop being so cute.”

With a smirk, Ferdinand rolled his eyes and bumped himself sideways against Lorenz carefully, not wanting to send a shockwave down the whole of the bench. “But enough about my love life. Weren’t we here to scrutinize your situation?”

“Yes!” Mercedes agreed to Lorenz’s blushing. “I’ve gotten bits and pieces, but I’d just love to hear how all this came to be.”

“_That’s_ embarrassing.” Lorenz looked to Hilda for assistance, but she and Marianne were whispering away and so he simply sighed towards Mercedes. “Let me drink a little more before I decide if I want to tell that story.”

“Well there’s no need to be _ embarrassed_, seeing as it all worked out,” Mercedes said in skeptic exasperation, “but I suppose waiting a little longer won’t hurt me.”

“Hey, you build models?” Felix had still been scrolling through Ferdinand’s phone and found some in-progress shots of a colorful plastic mech.

Ferdinand beamed. “Not so much lately. I used to be able to finish about one every few weeks, but the photos you’re looking at was the result of about four months of free time.”

They ended up caught in this conversation until Raphael came to insist upon food orders and move the night along.

Fae chuckled softly, and then covered their mouth with the back of their hand as they swallowed, watching the opposite side of their booth in amusement, where Cyril, Claude and Caspar were completely absorbed in their meals.

“You three eat so much,” they said in awe. “How do you three eat so much?”

The clanging of cutlery slowed as looks were shared about the table, Caspar opened his mouth to speak but Linhardt cleared his throat and so Caspar simply took a long drink of his diet cola instead.

Cyril shrugged. “It’s polite to eat more when someone else is cooking, or when you’re with a group.”

“Exactly,” Claude agreed, wiping his hands on a napkin. He winked at Cyril as he addressed the others, “Cyril could have an empty pantry, and we could all show up, and he’d make enough food for three days of leftovers.”

“You’re overstating it,” Cyril said skeptically, shaking his head.

Claude cocked his head, thoughtful. “You cook well.”

Lysithea swallowed a mouthful of a liquored hot chocolate. “Do you bake?”

“Uh, yeah,” Cyril admitted, tapping his heel onto Claude’s foot. “Yeah I do.”

Fae bumped against Lysithea. “Lizzie is an excellent baker.”

“It’s been a while since we did a cupcake run,” Linhardt observed.

Cyril smiled across the table. “Where did you run them to?”

“The hospital,” Lysithea answered. “They don’t always take food from strangers, but we were patients often enough that we knew enough staff and patients that the gifts were well received.” She blushed and looked away to Claude. “There’s nothing quite like the joy of biting into a well-made sweet made by someone who cares.”

Claude chuckled as he made a show of looking over his shoulder. “Gods, where is Raphael? I’m sure he’d have an opinion about this.” He looked back to Fae and gestured emphatically, “And if you really want to be stunned by someone putting away food…”

Their whole table half stood, Caspar and Linhardt leaning out of the edge of their seats, until they were gawking and sliding back into place in various degrees of awe and amusement. Raphael had a stack of three large empty plates beside himself, and seemed to still be eating.

“But he looks like three hundred pounds of muscle,” Caspar said with a sort of reverence.

“The dream?” Linhardt teased, gesturing with his fork. Caspar crossed his arms and squeezed at his biceps, shrugging in innocent agreement.

Mercedes whined around a mouthful of food in distress and her whole table watched her in deep concern, moving aside to accommodate her as she reached across to grab a glass of water by Hilda and swallow deeply. She coughed a little afterwards and then exclaimed, “Ah! That’s so spicy!” The others collectively sighed, relieved it hadn’t been an allergic reaction. “I didn’t expect it to be so spicy.”

Sylvain chuckled a little to see her so red-faced, and sobered when Lorenz frowned at him.

“Do you need something else?” Lorenz asked, and Mercedes was shaking her head, but Felix was already lifting his plate and leaning around Sylvain.

“Here, Mercie, Mercie, Mercie,” he insisted. “Trade.”

“Really?” she asked, already accepting his plate so that Sylvain leaned back away from the transaction with his hands raised incredulously, as if he were unused to them invading his space.

“Yeah,” Felix answered, nodding happily. “Come on.”

After setting down the plate, Felix rubbed his hands together in excitement. Sylvain smiled too at his enthusiasm, until he saw Hilda giving him doe eyes over his reaction and stuck his tongue out at her in a taunting expression.

Felix took a bite, and then his shoulders fell, his joy instantly lost. “This isn’t spicy.”

The table looked to him in surprise as Mercedes shrugged and raised her hands for emphasis.

“I mean…” Felix allowed, tossing his head back in disappointment, “Fodlani spicy and Srengan spicy are different spicies.” He frowned. “Spices?”

“Spicinesses,” Ferdinand suggested.

“Sapidity.” Lorenz laughed.

“Stupidity,” Sylvain agreed, laughing with the table.

When the moment passed, Felix sighed. “I just meant it’s like … a full mouth feel, but not a burn.”

Ignatz kept shooting Marianne sympathetic looks; having returned to her seat, she sat between Dimitri and Raphael for dinner — both voracious eaters, with plates so vastly different from the simple vegetarian meal she moused away at.

When dinner was done, Raphael helped clear the tables and started bouncing between the kitchen and the bar to continue assisting his coworkers, while Flayn asked Ignatz about his work; corporate and personal commissions. Their conversation was interrupted by Hilda who took Leonie’s place as she went and pulled at Felix’s shoulder.

“Felix! Come lose at pool!”

“Oh, fuck you.”

He’d laughed and joined her, and more division of the original seating took place, with people heading outside for fresh air or standing around inside the bar for more private conversation.

It was after such a conversation, an introduction and a discussion of travel, that Ferdinand left Fae to Lorenz’s company, excusing himself to meet the friends they’d brought.

They were hardly alone, but without the burden of having to address others, Lorenz was comfortable enough that he wrapped his arms around them from behind and pressed a kiss to the side of their head.

“Fae.”

“Lorenz?”

He sighed. “Did you tell your friends about dinner yet?”

“I…” they hesitated, wrapping their arms around his. “No, I was going to wait.”

He pouted, loosening his hold enough so they could spin about to face him. “Why didn’t you tell me about Lysithea’s study?”

Fae let their mouth fall open a second, breaking eye contact as they shook their head, before looking back, guilty. “Lorenz, I can’t ask you for that kind of money.”

He exhaled strongly through his nose, as if in a bitter laugh. “I won’t miss it.” He slid one hand up their back to where he could feel the brush of their hair. “I could even have done it anonymously, maybe, if I’d known before … but now I’ll have to talk to her.”

“Really?” Fae lit up in such a way that Lorenz wondered what he might’ve done that had them expecting otherwise.

“It’s very rare that concrete opportunities present themselves for me to help others,” he insisted. “Unless you ask me not to… Yes. Really.”

Fae raised their arms, laying one hand on Lorenz’s chest, and the other on the back of his neck. “You have a good heart,” they promised. “I’m not going to ask you not to.”

Lorenz smiled, reassured and grateful, stealing a quick kiss as he released his hold to let them walk back to the others.

When Raphael returned from his mostly self-imposed duties, he and Caspar got to talking, which turned into an arm wrestling contest, where Raph beat him, Leonie, Felix, Fae, and Flayn (carefully), but ultimately lost to Dimitri. The last bout creaking the screws holding the table to its base in a worrying way.

Meanwhile Cyril and Lysithea had taken some time to sit side by side and converse, unexpectedly interrupted by Ferdinand, who joined Lysithea in a second cup of liquored hot chocolate, and ended up talking with her through subjects that extended outside of Cyril’s life experience. Hilda saved him from that discussion and they sat in silence where they could watch the others, including Claude and Sylvain holding Felix up by each knee so he could retrieve a cue ball from where it had ended up in a light fixture.

“Hey Hilda?”

“Yes, Cyril.”

“What do you see in Claude?”

She snorted, and then composed herself before asking, “What?”

Cyril slouched. “I mean, he’s smart, but he can seem pretty dense, and he’s caring, but the way he talks can make even his good intentions come across as selfish. He annoys the hell out of me sometimes, but you’re obviously still interested. Is it because of anything specific or just that nebulous “feeling” that people describe?”

She shifted closer to Cyril, linking an arm with him, as she looked over to where Claude was talking with Felix and Flayn as Sylvain reset the pool table. “It’s a lot of things.” She sighed, adjusting her tone to be more conversational. “But to address the flaws you pointed out specifically, I do have a simple answer.” Cyril raised a curious eyebrow as Hilda kept him in short-lived suspense. “He’s open-minded. Always willing to learn, or relearn, the proper way to do things, or speak to people,” she bat her eyelashes at her companion, “or love someone.” She laughed at Cyril’s reaction. “Even when things aren’t perfect, he loves deeply, and does his best to be transparent in that. And, I _ do _ love him for it.”

Cyril looked thoughtful, and so Hilda cocked her head away from him as she asked, “Was this a test? Did I pass?”

“Sure, Hilda,” Cyril laughed, agreeing in a way that made it obvious that this had not been his intention. “Flying colors.”

As the night began to die down, Sylvain felt comfortable leaving Felix to the pool table, where he and Fae were racking up for another game. He excused himself when he caught sight of Lorenz at the bar, indulging in something a little stronger than the beer from earlier.

Sylvain left a twenty on the counter, and gestured to the bartender that he would like one also, causing Lorenz to roll his eyes, as Sylvain moved to sit next to him.

He waited, as it seemed obvious that Sylvain was here more for him than for his drink, and instantly wished he hadn’t after Sylvain swallowed a mouthful, and asked into his glass, “So why haven’t you fucked them yet?”

It was whispered, and the pub was loud enough that certainly not even the bartender had heard him. Regardless, Lorenz whirled his head around to ensure no one else was paying them any attention, while Sylvain chuckled softly, swallowing again.

“Saint above, Sylvain.” Lorenz looked straight ahead at the line of bottles, rather than his friend. “We are not having this conversation.”

Sylvain licked his lips. “Hilda asked me to have this conversation with you.”

“Tonight?” Lorenz looked at him then, his blush having faded to horror.

“Do you mean, did she ask me tonight, or did she ask me to have this conversation tonight?”

“Either,” Lorenz said, exasperated. “Both.”

Sylvain shook his head, winking at Lorenz.

“You’re such an ass,” Lorenz groaned, smiling stupidly into the final mouthful of his drink.

“It’s been a while for you,” Sylvain said softly.

“You couldn’t possibly know that.”

“Well, at least two months then.”

“At least two months,” Lorenz allowed, looking distant again.

“Are you nervous?” Sylvain shrugged, his effort to keep the conversation casual almost grating on Lorenz, but he couldn’t protest.

“Of course I’m nervous.” He leaned forward on his elbows, holding his head up with the back of his left hand, looking at Sylvain as if this were a stupid question.

Sylvain sighed. “You know they don’t all have to be involved if privacy would help.”

Lorenz straightened up, extending his index finger to his friend. “_You_ don’t get an opinion.” He crossed his arms. “Maybe they don’t all need to be present after we’ve lain together once … but the first time should be special,” Sylvain scoffed, personally feeling that it would be special by virtue of what it was, rather than Lorenz’s apparently failed attempts to make it so, “and would require more time than the scant few hours we’ve been spending with one another.”

Sylvain raised his hands for a moment, as if conceding something, but still looked unimpressed, exhaling in a way that was almost sympathetic.

“What if that’s all there ever is though? You’ve gotta make it work for you, Lorenz. Don’t fuck up a good thing by waiting too long.”

“I’m…” He bristled. “I’ll think about what you said.”

“Sure,” Sylvain agreed, clasping Lorenz on the shoulder and releasing him from the conversation.

Caspar approached Raphael and a woman collecting glasses hours later than he was expecting to. “Alright, so I think Lin and I need the bill.”

“Me too,” Lysithea peeped from behind him, causing him to jump, “but separate.”

The woman gave Raphael a look and walked off, while he awkwardly raised a hand behind his head and declared, “I think you better talk to your friend.” He smiled to see that they were nearby. “Hey Fae.”

They left Hilda’s laughing company, bringing a fist to their mouth just to compose themselves as they approached the others. “You’re headed out?”

“Yeah.” Caspar squinted dismissively, “I’m sure you don’t need a ride?”

Fae looked back to where Hilda was rejoining Marianne, the pair of them laughing and squealing through some exchange, embarrassing Dimitri, and shook their head with a roll of their eyes. “No…”

Raphael walked away from the interaction, and Caspar watched him go as he asked, “What’s going on with the bill?”

Fae nodded him and Lysithea back to where they’d propped Linhardt by the door. Quietly they announced, “Lorenz paid, and tipped well, from what I understand it.” Caspar frowned. Lysithea crossed her arms. Linhardt looked smug. “Apparently it’s something some of them can just … afford to do, and we shouldn’t feel bad about it.”

“I … I don’t know,” Caspar whined.

“If he’s made of money, let him pay,” Linhardt said, sounding amused. “You can use what you’ve saved to buy new pants.”

The group looked down at Caspar’s clothing, himself included. “What’s wrong with my pants?”

“Nothing, nothing,” Linhardt teased, winking at Fae, “but not every pair of jeans needs frayed edges and rolled ankles.”

“You approved my outfit when we left home.”

“Well, I didn’t expect everyone to dress up.”

“I’m pretty sure this is dressing down for most of them,” Fae laughed as they stepped outside.

Lysithea walked back inside to dole out a few more goodbyes, unclear about whether the others had. Cyril stood from the table where he’d been talking with Lorenz and Mercedes to catch her attention a final time as she left.

“It was nice to meet you,” he started, awkwardly.

“It was nice to meet you too,” she said, her tone indicating that she expected this to be their goodbye, and so Cyril took two long steps to get ahead of her.

“Hey, um, can I text you?” He scoffed once, in spite of himself, adding, “I mean, I’m awful — at texting,” he clarified, wincing, “especially in Fodlani, but—”

“I’d like that,” Lysithea interrupted, smiling and nodding when he reopened his eyes.

“Yeah? Yeah! Great!” He fumbled with his phone, offering her the keypad. “Do you want to just—? Cool.”

Handing it back to him, Lysithea leaned sideways to look out the window to where she could see Caspar’s vehicle.

“Alright, I think my ride’s leaving.”

Cyril stepped aside, almost tripping over himself to get out of her way. “Bye. Go easy on your heart.”

Reaching up to touch a scar that reached just below her collarbone, Lysithea gave him a look of confusion, maybe surprise. “You too.”

The pub continued to file out from there, until it was only Claude, Lorenz, Fae, Raphael and Ignatz who remained. Hilda was out on her second trip driving people home, and would be returning to do the same for her partners shortly. Ignatz had moved to the bar, and was doodling on his phone while Raphael continued to help his coworkers, with intentions to walk back to their apartment when the others finally left.

“Fuck, Leonie really took all the energy out of the place when she left,” Claude groaned, leaning into Lorenz so that his chin found his collarbone.

Lorenz leaned back and adjusted until he could wrap his arm around Claude, and this wasn’t new. To be out with friends and then collapsing on each other could have felt … mundane, but it was still different somehow, to hold his boyfriend like this.

“You’re tired?”

His eyes closed, Claude huffed. “You’re mocking me?”

“No,” Lorenz promised, pressing a kiss to the side of his head. “Sorry.”

“‘S fine,” Claude slurred comfortably.

Seated across from them in their booth, Fae slowly sunk down onto the table, extending an arm until Lorenz reached out to pinch their fingers. He wondered if anyone in the pub would think it odd to look at them, despite the innocence of the act, but couldn’t bring himself to look anywhere but at his partners.

“Everyone liked you,” Lorenz said, as if in a taunt.

“Me?” Claude peeped, so that Fae and Lorenz both chuckled.

“I’m sure they liked you too,” Lorenz assured him, “but I meant Fae.”

“Mm. They’re very likable.”

“Thank you.”

After texting their father with their free hand, Fae turned to the sound of the pub door opening and smiled lazily at Hilda, despite the fact that she couldn’t see more than their eyes around their crossed arm. Even so, Hilda beamed at the three of them, waving as she walked over to the bar to check in with Raphael and Ignatz, and accept hugs from each of them before walking over to their booth.

“Claude?” Hilda prompted.

“Mm?”

“I love you.”

He smiled and didn’t open his eyes, but did reach out blindly towards the sound of Hilda’s voice.

Rolling her eyes at Fae, Hilda tangled her left hand with Claude’s and was unsurprised when he bent his elbow to pull her closer and around him. Her heart fluttered when his lips found her fingers, and leaning over him, Lorenz extended his neck to kiss her lips once also.

“Alright,” Hilda said, blushing as she pulled at Claude’s hand. “Let’s get you into a bed.” His eyes snapped open and Hilda laughed, “Oh, that gets your attention.”

Claude sat up, scratching his face where he’d been leaning on Lorenz. “Only long enough to get me there. I…” He tried to swallow some threatening disappointment, “I can sleep in the guest room if you guys are…”

“No,” Fae assured him with a shake of their head, standing to follow Hilda. “Let’s get some sleep.”

They bid goodnight to their friends and made their way to Lorenz’s house, where he apologized to Magic and took him out while the others brushed their teeth and stumbled out of some layers of clothing. In the end, Claude insisted upon sleeping in the guest room anyway, unable to handle the complete abandonment of personal space required of sharing Lorenz’s bed with three people. Hilda confirmed with him and the others before joining him, leaving Lorenz and Fae to gossip well into the witching hour until they too passed out for the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah I have no excuse for how long this chapter took, except my friends wanted a chapter with a bunch of friends and I was originally going to try to give everyone a balanced number of speaking lines and ... it was just too much. I couldn't do it. It was already intimidating enough to try and find a Voice for each character. I hope they felt like themselves! I'd love a kudos or comment. <3
> 
> Oh! And I've read so much Ferdibert fanfiction, but still haven't played the Crimson Flower route. You guys really sold me on that ship though.


	5. Some Things Worth Talking About

The guest room was cool and comfortable. Through the crack in the curtains, Claude could see that the sky was the deep blue of early morning and he stretched out towards the window to more tightly close the curtains before the sun could peek through, mostly for Hilda’s sake. He rolled over to where he could see her, curling the sheet tightly around herself, and he realized he could lose his access to the covering if he moved in just the wrong way; the blankets kicked to the base of the bed by both of them the night before.

There was the temptation to wrap around her, whether in gentle intimacy or in annoying overbearance, but instead Claude just smiled, and adjusted her hair behind her back so that when he moved he wouldn’t lean against it. Finding his phone on the bedside table, he settled in for a lonely hour or two, scrolling through the photos Ignatz posted and other media.

Hilda was shifting in the blankets, stealing them with her movements, kicking more at the comforter at the base of the bed until her feet poked out at the base of the bed, and whether it was natural or as a result of her apparent discomfort, or because Claude snickered softly, she woke. She opened her tired eyes to glance at him once, a moment of fleeting eye contact, before wincing them closed deliberately.

“What time is it?”

“Early,” Claude answered. “You can go back to sleep.”

She rolled again, the sheet rustling around her. “I don’t know. Are the others awake?”

“I doubt it,” Claude assured her, putting his phone back on the table. He slid down on the bed to where he could press a kiss on the back of her shoulder, covered in a shirt and the sheet as it was. She rolled both shoulders in answer and Claude started brushing her hair aside with his fingertips to expose the back of her neck, rubbing his nose against it as he whispered, “You can relax, Hilda.”

His weight on his hands as he hovered over her, Claude dipped close enough to kiss the bare skin of her neck, and giggled when visible goosebumps rose in his wake. Hilda hummed appreciatively when he kissed the spot again, more slowly this time. The proximity of his body brought on a warmth that she wanted to arch into, to feel more directly against her, around her, inside her…

She let her eyes flutter open. She couldn’t sleep like this.

Turning over, Hilda knew she was blushing, and expected Claude to look smug, but instead he looked vulnerable and she turned her face towards his left hand when he moved to cradle the curve of her jaw. He moved his legs so that he was straddling her, his thumb finding the base of her chin so that he could tip her head up as he leaned down to kiss the front of her neck, similar to before, but parting his lips this time, grazing her with his teeth, sighing against her skin, kissing once more in a soft and chaste way as her throat bobbed in a swallow.

“Claude.”

He moved his hand to the bed, freeing her to look at him as he slid down, smiling sheepishly. “Sorry.”

Her eyes narrowed in appraisal, Hilda’s lips curled in a smile, obviously appreciative of her partner. Claude chuckled, reaching out to run his thumb through her bangs, playful.

“Why don’t you crawl into bed with Fae and Lorenz?”

“Just me?” Hilda asked, rolling her body, wrapping her hands around Claude’s neck.

He moved his left hand up to stroke her forearm. “I could make breakfast?” Hilda scrunched her nose in judgement, so Claude shrugged. “Tea, at least.”

She pouted a little, sympathetic. “Trying to seduce Lorenz with his own possessions?”

“Acts of service?” he offered weakly, his expression a little exasperated, rolling to her side.

She giggled, nodding. “That might do it.”

Hilda trailed her hand from his neck, across his shoulder and down his arm to bring his fingers to her lips for a kiss before releasing the contact to sit up on the edge of the bed and stretch.

Claude held Magic by the collar so that she could close Lorenz’s bedroom door behind herself, unbothered by the begging pup. She found the others resting, side by side, not touching, sharing the same covers, and pouted about how sweet she found that, as she and Claude could have done no such thing.

Sliding into bed behind Lorenz, Hilda startled him awake by wrapping an arm around his middle. Despite his exhaustion and surprise, he looked mostly confused when he raised his arm to look down at her and then back and forth from Fae in front of him.

“No…” he whined, tired, curling lazy fingers in the fabric on her shoulder. “Come, lay between us.”

Hilda was happy to clamber over him, curling up under his arm to slot herself in as a little spoon, even if they were both still separate from Fae, sleeping through this.

They also slept through Claude making his way back and forth from the kitchen some minutes later. Hilda did her best to keep from laughing just at the soft sounds of Claude’s work; the door clicking open and closed, items being left on the dressers and the bedside table closest to Lorenz, Claude’s whispers to Magic. She was surprised that Lorenz, who had woken so recently, seemed unbothered by it. She couldn’t say for certain that he had fallen back asleep, but his slack arm around her seemed to tell of unconscious intimacy.

Her suspicions felt proven true when Claude sat on the bed behind Lorenz, and this, finally, caused Lorenz’s hand to spasm on her stomach as he jerked awake. She smiled as she heard Claude hushing him, the almost-laughter in his whispers plain.

Claude rolled a hand over Lorenz’s bare shoulder, wondering whether he was actually comfortable in the undershirt he slept in. “Good morning.”

“Mm,” Lorenz grunted as Claude leaned forward to press a kiss to his forehead. “Morning.” He sighed. “...What’s that smell?”

“Tea.” Claude slid his hand from Lorenz’s right shoulder over the front of his chest, encouraging him to roll on his back, even as Hilda turned to shoot him a look of incredulity. “Would you like some?”

Lorenz placed his left hand on the side of his face, and was rubbing at his eye with his ring and pinky fingers as he nodded in answer, feeling Hilda sitting up beside him in the meantime. Pressing his hands into the bed, he shifted himself backwards before sitting up, so that he was not immediately between Claude and Hilda; though they shared a look about this that Lorenz didn’t quite understand.

Claude stood up then, and collected two mugs on the opposite end of the room. Bending one leg, he only half sat on the bed as he first gave one to Hilda, and then one to Lorenz, as the three of them offered a smile to Fae as they rolled over to see them.

Fae stretched out on their stomach, legs and arms straight towards the head and the foot of the bed, as they nuzzled back into the pillow they were using, so Claude held back on offering them anything.

“How is it?” Claude asked, knowing Lorenz was discerning.

“It’s perfect,” Lorenz answered, looking down at his mug, so that Claude looked to Hilda instead, who winked at him. “Thank you.”

“I’d have made breakfast, but I didn’t want to waste any of your food if no one was hungry,” Claude went on, swinging his other leg onto the bed, crossing them beneath him. “I did make some toast though,” he added, as Fae lifted their upper body so their hair swam around them in a mess of tangles. He waited until they pushed their hair back out of their face, so they could see him address them as they sat up on their heels. “So you have something to eat with your pills.”

Fae groaned and pointed at Claude in tired acknowledgement and understanding, swiping their hand in their hair again afterwards as they looked around the room, “Speaking of… They’re in my bag in the kitchen.”

“I’ll get them,” Claude asserted, standing.

“Then can you grab my phone?” Hilda asked. “It’s in the guest room.”

“Any other requests?” Claude chuckled, his expression almost accusatory.

“Hurry back,” Lorenz said finally, looking more awake.

Claude winked in answer, moving about the room to place a mug and a plate of jam-slathered toast on the table by Fae’s bedside before leaving to collect the requested items. He returned to them all sharing bits of toast and rolled his eyes. “You know I can–”

“We’re fine, sweetheart,” Fae promised. “Come sit down.”

Claude blushed as he left their bag in their lap and handed Hilda her phone. They all moved about to accommodate him, Lorenz bending his legs around Hilda and shifting closer to Fae to give Claude room to sit with the group. Hilda snorted in amusement as she opened her texts, and felt the bed unbalance as Claude tried not to spill the mug he’d been collecting from the bedside table, startled by her noise.

Relieved that he could see that Claude hadn’t burned himself, Lorenz pressed the side of his face atop Hilda’s head and traced one hand down her upper arm. “What tickled you?”

“Sylvain,” Hilda said casually, balancing her mug between her legs as she typed out a reply, smiling as Lorenz sighed around her, disappointed.

“What does he have to say this early in the morning worth laughing about?” Claude asked.

“He was asking if him talking to Lorenz had done any good.”

“I thought things were progressing at a natural pace,” Lorenz whined into Hilda’s hair.

“What does _ that _ mean?” Claude asked, sharing a confused look with Fae.

“I had Sylvain ask Lorenz why we haven’t had sex,” Hilda explained, leaning away from Lorenz to shrug at Claude. A beat of recognition followed.

“Hilda!” Claude scolded at the same time that Fae was speaking, insistent.

“Things have been progressing naturally.” They placed their mug and plate on the bedside table, cursing softly under their breath. 

“Not for all of us,” Lorenz said, watching Hilda sip her tea.

After handing her mug to Claude, Hilda spun around on her knees, and climbed into Lorenz’s lap, wrapping her legs around his waist as she confessed with a dark tone to her voice, “I have never been so sexually frustrated in my whole damn life.” With her fingers on his neck, Hilda pulled him into a kiss before resting her temple on his chest. “And you can blame Claude, because we agreed that if we were intimate that we might scare you off.”

Claude made a choked noise as he left her mug on the bedside table. “Exactly. **We** agreed.” He face-palmed and adjusted his hair. “If **you** didn’t agree anymore, you should’ve talked to me about it, rather than Sylvain.”

“I talked to you assholes about all my exes,” Hilda retorted with a raised eyebrow.

“Okay, well maybe not instead of Sylvain,” Claude allowed.

“Let’s just–” Fae aborted their own sentence, holding their hands out, flat and steady, trying to calm the room with a breath, but in so doing saw that Lorenz was already hunched over Hilda, eyes closed, looking tense and contemplative. “Lorenz?”

He winced at the sound of his name, and twitched when he felt Claude’s hands on his arm, following the limb to pluck the mug from his hand also. He sighed, pulling away from Hilda with his hands on her shoulders.

“I’m sorry, Hilda, Claude.” He looked from one to the other to Fae, and asked, hopelessly, “Were **you** being honest just now?” They frowned and so Lorenz clarified, “That you felt things were progressing at a comfortable pace? Otherwise I’m sure I also owe you an apology.”

There was some groaning from the others that Lorenz answered with a roll of his eyes, as he slid one hand up into Hilda’s hair, and the other down to the small of her back, adjusting her as he nuzzled into the crook of her jaw, kissing her as she laughed, a little triumphant, from her neck to her cheekbone. When Fae and Claude silenced, the scratching at the door became obvious and Lorenz was smiling as he pulled away from Hilda again.

“I **am** sorry, though. You should all feel free to pursue each other, at least, if not others.”

“Lorenz,” Hilda whined, but he was still smiling, massaging his fingers along the back of her scalp.

“Don’t worry,” he promised. “I know that wasn’t the lesson to take from this. I’ll be ready the next time the moment’s right.” He reached his opposite hand down below Hilda’s ass and deposited her into Claude’s lap as he made room to leave. “But this isn’t that moment, because I still have to take Magic out, I expect?” He made eye contact with Claude, who nodded.

They separated then. Claude made a more substantive breakfast, while Lorenz dressed slower than Fae and had to chase after them and Magic when they tried to insist that he stay warm indoors. Hilda sat in the kitchen and texted Sylvain about how they’d talked about it but Lorenz had simply run away before she could try out his crude, animate, encouraging advice to ‘JUST SUCK HIS DICK!’

After Hilda ate, she went to shower when the others returned, and left Claude to make a conscious effort not to pout about the whole situation. He couldn’t help thinking that if Lorenz was apprehensive about intimacy, that it probably had something to do with his presence. They had made out a half dozen times when alone the past two weeks, and Lorenz had even grabbed his ass the last time, but their most recent bedroom conversation had left him feeling apprehensive about Lorenz’s enthusiasm.

With Fae gone to shower and Hilda taking her crafting bag into the basement, Claude waited at the kitchen table as Lorenz washed and stacked the dishes. They talked about colleagues and clients, Claude having gotten a few texts in the morning that he’d been happy to delegate.

Claude was standing as Lorenz rinsed his hands, and so he was unsurprised when he found himself embraced from behind when he cut the water. Leaned forward as he was, Lorenz blushed a little, in spite of himself, before standing straight and collecting a rag with which to dry his hands.

Claude was hoping for a little longer to build up to his question, but when he heard the water down the hall stop also, signaling the end of Fae’s shower, he blurted very quickly, “Do you need me to head out?”

“What?” Lorenz scoffed, turning his upper body and rotating his shoulders until he could wrap an arm around Claude’s neck.

“Well, after our earlier conversation,” Claude clarified, “I was wondering if you’d want me to disappear for a few hours? I could even take Fae or Hilda with me, so that you could be alone with–”

“Goddess,” Lorenz groaned, reminded of his conversation with Sylvain. He turned around entirely and rested his right arm on Claude’s shoulder, extended out behind Claude lazily, his opposite hand reaching down his lower back to cradle him closer. “Claude. Have I been so inattentive?”

“No!” Claude insisted, maybe a little too emphatically. He repeated, more softly, “No. And don’t think that I haven’t noticed that you pull away more slowly now than you used to.” He snickered as Lorenz’s eyes widened, the barest amount. “I just … don’t want you to feel … obligated? Coerced? Into doing anything with me just because you’re ready for,” he shrugged, “whatever it is you might want to do with Fae or Hilda.”

Lorenz folded his right arm until his hand could hold the opposite side of Claude’s head, wry amusement on his face as he considered Claude’s proximity.

“We would not have come so far if I’d been disinterested,” Lorenz promised. “It is more than curiosity, or even attraction … not that I’d have expected that to be in question by now,” Lorenz blushed as he thought of the last time Claude had fondled him through his clothes. Ignorant to Lorenz’s exact thoughts, but cognizant of scenarios in which their attraction had been plain, Claude smiled patiently. “I love you, differently now than a few months ago…” Lorenz swallowed nervously as he concluded, willing strength to his voice, “I said I would be ready, and I meant that as much for you as Fae or Hilda. You needn’t worry.”

“Okay,” Claude agreed, pulling on Lorenz’s back and rising on his toes as much as necessary to kiss him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was originally part of the smut chapter, which is still forthcoming, but I decided to break it up because it was getting LONG. Chapter 6's draft is currently 9,253 words and growing, so ... get ready for that.
> 
> I hope this wasn't disappointing for now! I'd love a kudos or comment (especially if you're a guest)!


	6. On Purpose! On Purpose I Love You!

Redressed, Fae joined the others in the basement, and sat with Lorenz on the couch as Claude left to take his turn in the shower. They talked over the furniture with Hilda, where she sat by the woodstove and worked on drawing in a notebook, planning out a quilt or book or some other display. She hadn’t told anyone but Marianne that she’d felt the ring upon her finger, but no one would recognize a wedding present up until it was given, and Hilda felt free to start brainstorming her gift.

When the shower cut off, Lorenz left to find a change of clothes in anticipation of being able to make himself somewhat presentable. Although he wasn’t uncomfortable around his partners in his current state, the idea of shaving and feeling fresh after their outing the night before held appeal even before his mind started to conjure insecurities at being the last in his house to clean up.

Hilda waited a few minutes after Lorenz ascended the staircase before standing. She licked her lips, amused by Fae lounging on the couch to where she couldn’t see them.

“I forgot something in the guest room,” Hilda said casually, walking to the stairs.

“Mmhmm,” Fae answered, looking up from their phone.

“Be right back.” She smiled to herself as she skipped up the stairs, two at a time, only to hold back from walking down the hall, holding her hands up and nudging Magic with her leg as she peeked down towards the bathroom door and waited an extra minute until she heard the shower start up again.

After tip-toeing down the hall, Hilda had to stop herself from knocking on the guest room door, and slowly clicked open the handle.

“Claude? Are you doing anything embarrassing?”

“I’m just–” Claude began, cutting off when he turned around and found Hilda immediately behind him. She smiled and raised a finger to her lips, insisting upon his continued silence, and he could see that she’d left the door cracked open behind herself. He flushed at Hilda’s implications, and would have anyway, caught trying to pull on a pair of pants, so that he was mostly naked, and more exposed than he was expecting to be.

Taking his pants with her right hand, Hilda gently tossed them behind herself, sliding her left hand up Claude’s side, letting her index finger glide over his nipple, smiling as it beaded in the wake of her touch. Claude gasped and shivered and reached up to grab hold of her hand, his lips curling in a skeptic smile as she tilted her head playfully.

She was nodding as Claude leaned down to kiss her. He pressed her hand against him, sliding it up his chest to his shoulder, so that when their lips parted, Hilda used the leverage of his body to hop up and wrap her legs around his waist, and he moved to catch her, bumping his forehead to hers.

“You’re–” Claude sighed.

“If you insult me, I’m leaving,” Hilda warned, blushing as she clung to his neck and watched his mouth move as he spoke.

Claude snickered. “I was just going to say ‘in a mood.’”

“It’s how you were saying it,” Hilda insisted, shaking her head as she looked him in the eye, and Claude swallowed as her gaze cut through him.

Pivoting to where he could sit on the bed, Claude adjusted his position beneath Hilda, and moved one hand up to rest behind her shoulders, where he could feel the brush of her long, pink hair. “How was I saying it?” he whispered, kissing her again, leaving his lips against hers as the hand which still held her bottom more purposefully massaged the swell of her ass. “Other than completely at your mercy?”

“Is that how you feel?”

She licked her lips; Claude’s continued proximity meaning he felt the faintest ghost of her tongue. His hand tightened and relaxed on her shirt, and he leaned back into her wrists and how she cradled the back of his head with her fingers.

“That’s how I _ am, _ Hilda.”

With a smirk, Hilda leaned in for further kisses, slowly kneeling up on her knees where she straddled Claude, so that his mouth fell from her lips to her breasts, and he laughed softly as he grabbed her ass with both hands and nuzzled into her cleavage.

As Claude dragged his tongue up the side of her breast until he found a spot that he chose to suck on instead – an audible smack squeaking through the room – Hilda released her hold on him, and it took Claude being forced away to realize she was pulling her shirt overhead. He caught her back and behind to help balance her as she wobbled on the mattress, and craned his neck up to kiss her lips again, eager and gentle.

“Lay down,” Hilda ordered at a whisper.

Claude wiggled his eyebrows as he let himself drop backwards, fumbling on the bed with Hilda until he was able to lay back as she crawled over him, straddling his right thigh. He sighed, all relief and desperation, as Hilda ran her right hand over the bulge in his boxers, and curled her left over his right shoulder, balancing herself on her forearm. He let himself relax in her hands, his right hand flopping lazily overhead from where he’d previously been tracing fingertips on her side, his left still caressing a firm line down her right upper arm.

Hilda fondled Claude a little longer through his clothing, rolling a little on her side so she could watch the reactions of his body, satisfied that his panting revealed his state of mind. He enthusiastically leaned in to kiss her again when she turned back, and bit and tugged at his bottom lip before offering further instruction.

“No cumming, and no penetration until both Fae and Lorenz find us.”

Claude’s elation was interrupted very briefly by a strained expression as his cock twitched in Hilda’s grasp, and she squeezed solidly upon him, but then he was all smiles and wonder again.

“Oh, I am _ so _ here for this.”

Bringing both of his hands up to the sides of her face, Claude insisted on more kisses. When she indulged him, Claude caressed her face and neck with the back of his left hand, and traced her ear with his ring finger. Meanwhile his right arm wrapped around her torso and cradled her as he rolled on his side, hitching his thigh up between her legs with a soft bump, before starting to lean his legs and pelvis away from her and her touch, worried about crushing her leg under his. He shuffled down the bed to where he could lick a stripe up the top of her stomach and reached for the fastenings of her pants.

She shivered as Claude’s breath tickled over the wet spot left by his tongue, and let her hands fall into his damp hair, wiggling as she raised her hip from the bed to accommodate the removal of her pants. Claude leaned forward as he curled her panties precariously low on her left hip, pressing his lips and tongue into the soft curve. Hilda cooed encouragingly as she swayed her hips again, halting with a gasp when Claude gripped her thigh and bit around the swell of her hip, gliding his right hand up the center of her body to where he could wrap it around her left breast, and roll his thumb over her nipple, hard and obvious even through the fabric of her bra.

Claude nuzzled and kissed his way up Hilda’s torso, his arm slipping from her breast to her back again as he continued rolling them, until he was atop her, biting a wide mouth over the cup of her bra. Hilda couldn’t really feel his teeth, but the warm wet feel of his tongue did pierce the material, and she shifted comfortably in his arms. She wrapped her legs around his waist as he grabbed hold of the back of her shoulders and used her body as leverage to slide himself up between her legs, where he could grind his clothed erection against the crotch of her panties in a few gasping thrusts.

Hilda purred as her blush was spreading down through her neck, over the curves of her breasts, and Claude stopped so that he could lean down and kiss across her face, and settle his mouth on hers, his tongue stilling only when his hands on her back successfully found the hooks on her bra. Hilda paused too, her expression wanton and pleased as Claude pulled away, his fingers curling around the straps over her shoulders. Rolling her body up towards him, Hilda adjusted her arms on her sides and her hands on his chest as the garment found its way into Claude’s right hand, and then the floor.

Claude’s hands returned to Hilda’s middle, following her stomach up to rest below her breasts, trailing kisses from her neck to her nipples and back again as she squeezed a leg around him and humped against his side.

They giggled and made out and rolled around on the bed for a few minutes, laying side by side when Hilda hooked her thumb in the band of Claude’s boxers – gold with black dragons and little exclamations of ‘Roar!’ printed upon them, and pulled it until the band slipped onto the base of his cock, exposing the head of him, rouge and dripping.

The gasp that left Claude as Hilda took hold of his shaft, squishing her thumb from the base of him up over the head of his cock, spreading his precum, left his bottom lip quivering and he buried his face into her neck, sighing as he pinched and plucked at her right nipple. She had never touched him like this before, never seen him like this before, but as his teeth found her jaw and his beard tickled her neck, and he massaged her whole breast with the weight of his hand, she felt comforted that he was the same as he had been these past few weeks – the same as he’d always been, really – ready to play and fool around at the drop of a hat, and searching for moments of trust and reciprocated happiness.

She squeezed her fist around the head of his cock, and Claude squeaked, “Softer!”

Hilda let go initially, biting her lips. She tilted her head towards him, brow furrowed, pulsing her fingertips up and down his exposed cockhead instead. “Did that hurt?”

Claude laughed, soft and airy. “I mean a little, yeah.”

Running her free hand through his hair, gently scratching his scalp, Hilda made a mental note that Claude’s choice of words implied only that she should not touch him like this now, rather than not touch him like this ever. She closed her fist around him again, and let her grip throb to less intense pressure, and Claude groaned, pleasured and grateful, so that Hilda was shushing him.

“No clues for our partners,” Hilda scolded playfully.

Closing his mouth in an amused grin, Claude nodded and curled his body more so that Hilda could keep touching him as he sucked on her right breast, muffling his whimpers. With words, and with her hand in his hair forcing his mouth any which way, Hilda continued to offer guidance towards what she wanted from him and Claude was all too happy to oblige, interrupting only once as he pressed a hand between her thighs.

“Can I touch you?”

“Yes.”

He rubbed the front of his first three fingers against her pussy, slowly bending his thumb over her mound and curling his fingertips as he fondled her through her clothing.

“Higher – er – more towards the front of me,” Hilda directed, and then gasped, cutting herself short with a hastily closed mouth before the sound could turn into a moan, and Claude snuffled in disappointment, his desires to hear that noise and to play their game at odds. He continued rolling the first halves of his middle and ring fingers between her lips so that the top of his palm was able to massage down against the edge of her mound, close to her clit.

After turning his hand around, so that his fingers were up towards her stomach, he rubbed her mound with his palm, back and forth, with rhythmic juts of his wrist; Hilda mirroring his pace as she snuck her hand into Claude’s boxers to stroke down the length of him.

“I love you,” Claude whispered, rolling his ring finger so it hooked under the side of her panties, and traced the elastic until he could curl his finger to caress across her soft wet lips, adjusting his wrist again.

“I–” Hilda gasped.

“Yeah?” Claude taunted, prodding a little deeper so his fingertip slid between her lips, over her entrance; his middle and pinky fingers also slipping under her clothing.

“Yeah.”

“You all abandoned,” Fae was saying at a regular volume as they walked in through the open door, whispering the last word, “me.”

They blushed and looked down at their extended hands. Claude pulled his hands back towards himself, but Hilda kept working her wrist, smiling, smug.

“Sorry,” Fae said, glancing up and turning back to the door.

“Join us,” Hilda called out.

“Yeah,” Claude encouraged.

“Unless you don’t want to,” Hilda clarified, a softer offer.

“Yeah,” Claude said again, but this time his voice wavered in pleasure and he gave Hilda a desperate look.

After a shy smile, Fae was eagerly advancing on the others as Hilda forced Claude onto his back and was sitting up on her heels. Fae wrapped an arm around Hilda’s middle and their other up over her shoulder as they pulled her into a kiss.

“As if I wouldn’t want to join you.”

Conversations of precautions, condoms and gloves and paraphernalia, had been had nearly a month and a half ago. The subject had come up in the context of Fae’s health, rather than discussions of intimacy, but as a matter of honesty they had gone that way. In the end Claude had suggested they all get tested, which in itself was a trial in embarrassment, but it meant that now as Fae rest their head on Hilda’s shoulder and pinched the material on Claude’s thigh, he felt confident that he could predict what was immediately forthcoming, and shivered in response.

Hilda let go of Claude’s erection, instead pressing the tips of three fingers onto the underside of the head of his cock, squishing him against his stomach.

“We figured no penetration, and no orgasms, until Lorenz finds us,” Hilda explained, as Fae dropped their arm from her shoulder and ran their fingernails up her spine.

“Sounds good to me,” they agreed, turning to kiss Hilda’s shoulder before looking back to Claude. “Do you need these?”

Claude licked his lips, and decided he might rather not try to find his voice, and shook his head.

With that, Fae pulled at the pinched material, and crawled between Claude’s legs as they helped him out of the last of his clothing.

Fae swept both hands over Claude’s thighs, and then through the hair on his stomach and chest as they lay down in front of him. “I knew you had a handsome body, but…” their hand replaced Hilda's on his cock, and the dry friction had his breath hitch as they angled him up into their mouth.

Claude’s shoulders twitched as his body threatened to crumple in on himself, and he squeezed Hilda’s thigh as he let his head fall back among the pillows for a moment before leaning up to look down to Fae again, dragging their tongue along his cock as they were.

“Oh, Gods.”

Hilda moved to kiss Claude and he wrapped his left hand around her wrist as she reached out to touch his face, needing to do something as his left knee hitched and his nerves were set aflame, lost with his two lovers. A wanton smile on her face, Hilda asked, “Do you want to lick me?”

“Oh. Yes,” Claude whimpered. “Yeah. Yes. Hilda.”

The shower cut out then, only about twenty minutes from when it had started, and all three of them turned their heads in the direction of the bathroom, despite the fact that it would be irrational to expect Lorenz to step out of it just yet. Fae giggled as they wrapped their right hand around Claude’s balls, their left holding him steady as they sucked him back into their mouth. Hilda smiled as Claude sighed again, neck twitching as he reached out to hold back some of Fae’s long hair.

With nothing left but the follow-through, Hilda kneeled back up and pressed her panties down to her knees, and then fell onto her side as she slid them down the rest of her legs, blowing Claude a kiss as he rolled his head back to look at her, to look her in the eye, grabbing at her hip with his right hand and grasping firmly down her thigh. Taking his hand in hers, Hilda left soft kisses on the backs of his fingers as she moved to squat and sit upon his upper chest, and Claude let go of Fae to wrap his left arm up around the back of Hilda’s right thigh, pulling her closer until she fell forward, on her knees and toes both, where he could reach her soft pink pussy with his lips and tongue.

He almost immediately had to stop himself from moaning, because beyond being _ touched _ by both of his partners, he took a deep satisfaction in feeling the soft petals of Hilda’s sex between his lips after so much build up. He wanted her to feel good; good enough to let him find his place here, again and again.

Hilda popped Claude’s right thumb into her mouth and enjoyed watching the twitch that jolted down his arm, and there was a bit of comedy to the rest of it, with Claude sucking and licking, and licking rapidly, on and around her pussy, while suffering his own little tortures that Hilda was now blind to, as Fae used their mouth and hands to tease and tantalize, all while they could distantly hear the shuffling of Lorenz brushing his teeth.

“Fae,” Claude called, a whispered exclamation as he retrieved his right arm from Hilda, his back curling forwards as his hips retreated into the covers. “Slow – slow down.”

It wasn’t the word Claude wanted, but their suction had been too much. Still, they seemed to understand, moving their mouth to lap open and slow on Claude’s balls. Fae chuckled as they wrapped their hands around Claude’s cock, dragging their tongue around the side of his head. They froze entirely as the bathroom door opened. Hilda leaned back to look at the guest room door, and Claude blushed and buried his face in Hilda’s left thigh, rolling his right thumb in circles just above Hilda’s clit.

“…Doing here? … No one … attention?”

Every other word Lorenz was saying to Magic made its way to the guest room, where Claude giggled and then gasped into Hilda’s skin as she put a hand on his head, shushing him. Then they heard Lorenz’s bedroom door close and collectively groaned.

Claude pistoned his thumb back and forth between Hilda’s lips afterwards, smiling as she gasped, first in frustration and then in relief, bringing her hands up to steady and stimulate her breasts. Fae was moving away from him, but when they laid back down, Claude could tell it had only been to undress to some degree, as warm skin settled on his thighs. He curled his ankles around them and pinched and rubbed at Hilda, until the trio froze again, a whirring noise stopping them in place.

_ ‘What the fuck?’ _ Claude mouthed, as Hilda covered her face in both hands, her whole body bouncing atop him as she giggled.

“What is that?” Fae whispered.

“I think it’s a fucking hairdryer,” Hilda wheezed, holding her cheeks, causing Fae and Claude to chuckle with her. She swept her fingertips over her mouth before she started to roll off Claude. “Here, come on, let’s move.”

As Hilda crawled over to Claude’s side, he pressed into the mattress to shift himself back and into a sitting position, smirking, his expression a little dizzy, as he caught sight of Fae, dressed only in their panties. He beckoned them with a wave of his hand, adjusting their hair around their face when they sat next to him.

Claude chuckled against Fae’s lips as Hilda slipped between them, so that her legs were swung over his lap and she could wrap an arm around Fae’s neck, pulling them to her mouth next when Claude let them slip away. He licked his thumb and index finger and massaged Hilda’s nipples as he awaited further attention from either of their mouths.

He twitched in surprise when Fae lowered their right hand down to link with his left, and Hilda turned so she could tease the head of his cock with her left hand. They kissed and fumbled, and Fae had one leg curled around Hilda, Claude’s right hand curved up so that the side of his index finger was rubbing up against their clothed pussy as Hilda sucked on their neck, when they all slowed and steadied again to the sound of Lorenz’s bedroom door opening, followed by the unmistakable steps of him walking down the hall.

Hilda tossed her head back, her eyes skyward, sharing a look with her partners; each knowing he was surely looking for them in the basement.

“He’ll find us,” Claude snickered, batting at Hilda’s hand on Fae’s thigh until he could press their legs together and pull them up across his lap..

“I want him–” Fae started, cutting themselves off as Hilda’s hands crept over their thighs, parting them again to wrap her lips around the front of their mound, still covered in black cotton.

Claude ran a large hand up and down their side, slowly inching his fingers closer to himself to where he could stroke their nipple with his thumb. His right hand cradled their right shoulder, keeping them balanced at an angle as he leaned down to bump his forehead against theirs. “We want him too,” he whispered. “We’re not looking to exclude him.”

“I want him to be comfortable,” Fae amended. “Shouldn’t we better orchestrate how he finds us?”

Claude’s left hand pressed down the length of their stomach, and crept under the band of their panties, forcing Hilda’s mouth away as he fondled their wet lips directly. “You look perfect just like this.”

He kissed their cheek and then their ear as they turned their head to the door, anticipatory; shivering as Claude’s deft fingers pet encouragingly between their lips.

Hilda lay down in her place between Fae’s legs, leaving a kiss on the inside of their thigh when she could no longer properly reach them. Stretching her right hand up to massage Claude’s chest, she pinched his nipple between her thumb and the side of her hand.

The tangle of bodies on the bed turned at the sound of Lorenz’s heel as he stepped into the room, and he looked about ready to step back out of it so that Claude’s expression fell a little in worry.

“Lorenz,” Fae beckoned, strained with pleasure as Claude slipped his hand away; a fleeting moment of friction.

“Join us,” Hilda sang, her hands falling back on Fae’s thighs, soothing them.

Lorenz slammed the door closed to keep his dog from following him inside, and then rest both hands on either side of the door frame as he pressed his forehead to the door, cool against the immediate blush that blossomed from deep in his chest. He took a moment before leaning back, still holding the door frame to keep from falling backwards as he stretched out and assessed his partners.

“You… Goddess.” Lorenz smiled as he straightened up, suffering this very specific form of teasing as Hilda stuck her tongue out at him.

His expression seemed apprehensive, or maybe just contemplative, as he approached, but Claude hoped it could be dismissed as tortured, considering the circumstances.

The others moved as Lorenz crawled upon the bed. He intended to sit up as they were, either on his heels or – but he found himself prostrated on his hands and knees between Claude and Hilda, with Fae before him, and he was too intimidated to try and appear casual. He leaned up to kiss Hilda instead.

She reveled in it as long as it lasted, even as their energies were at odds, the tip of her tongue fast and eager. However, when his lips pulled away, Hilda shoved on his shoulder until he lost balance and fell on his side, needing to open him up to the others.

Lorenz found himself manhandled into laying on his back as the others stretched out to lay on and around him. Hilda sat on her heels between his legs, creeping one hand up the base of his shirt, the other massaging his right thigh, which Fae was straddling as they crept a hand over his crotch, their teeth on his neck. Claude’s tongue was in his mouth, also slipping a hand into Lorenz’s clothing, pressing his fingertips over Lorenz’s hip under his pants. Lorenz was panting into Claude’s mouth, who seemed unbothered by it, even amused, as his flush face smiled and snickered between the wet press of their lips.

Claude used his right hand to adjust a few wayward strands of Lorenz’s hair as he moved from their deep kisses to leave soft pecks on Lorenz’s lips and cheekbones, while Fae and Hilda groped at his building erection, and Lorenz twitched, his head shying away from Claude as he hissed, “Wait.”

Lorenz gasped as all relevant contact immediately ceased. No one was kissing him, Fae and Claude pulled their hands away entirely, while Hilda removed her hand from his stomach and placed her hand that had been on his cock on his thigh instead. He closed his eyes and sighed out a breath of air, as an embarrassed smile crept over his features. “I don’t think I’ve ever had a partner respect a boundary like that…”

Claude clicked his tongue in horror as he made eye contact with Hilda. “Lorenz. That’s terrible.”

Lorenz chuckled as he shifted on the bed and opened his eyes, reaching out to drag his hand across Claude’s chest hair, and over his neck. “But I wasn’t asking for us to stop, my love.”

“Still…” Hilda insisted, a squeak to her voice.

He smiled at her. “I just … needed a moment. I don’t mind being in awe of you, but I didn’t want to be in shock.” He took his right hand from Fae’s hip and extended it to press his thumb to Hilda’s lips and then tap the side of her face with his index finger. “I want to be present for every second of this… I’m alright now.”

He intended just to assure her, and maybe to tantalize, as he moved to let his hand fall from her face, but Hilda caught it, popping his thumb in her mouth, and Lorenz gasped. Claude kissed his temple and curled his hand in the material over Lorenz’s heart, pulling his shirt up; Fae taking the opening to reach for the button on his pants.

As Claude continued to bunch up Lorenz’s shirt, Lorenz offered, “Here, let me.” And didn’t quite think through sitting up to try and pull the garment overhead, as Fae and Hilda were still of a mind to remove his pants, and all of a sudden he was half undressed in what he could only imagine as the worst possible way, with his pants and underclothes down to his knees, and shirt pulled half overhead. Despite very quickly finishing his efforts to toss his shirt to the floor, it was time enough for Hilda and Claude to snicker, and for Fae to look quite amused.

Lorenz leaned forward, his right hand wrapped around his brow so that his hand could hide his eyes.

“Relax, honey,” Hilda insisted, taking the last of his clothing, and Lorenz could feel Claude clambering around him to hold him from behind, pulling on his chest until he leaned back towards him. When Lorenz dared to look again, he gasped, the worry on his face replaced with abject pleasure, as Fae smiled at him, confirming their connection, before kissing his cock, and working their warm, wet mouth around him.

Claude trailed a single fingernail up and down across Lorenz’s adam’s apple, moving his fingers to massage his neck for a while before taking hold of his jaw and guiding his head back, so that he could lick and bite at his neck.

Lorenz wrapped his left hand back around Claude’s side and then followed Hilda’s direction to shift closer to the middle of the bed, taking the others with him. After, Hilda whispered something in Fae’s ear, and then they were pumping his cock with their fist as they laid on their side next to him, feet towards the head of the bed. They trailed their lips over his plush, pink cockhead as they hitched the knee of their left leg.

“Won’t you touch me, Lorenz?” they purred.

With a nod, he bent his elbow back far enough to comfortably adjust his wrist as he extended his middle finger against their sex.

“Let him undress you,” Claude suggested, referring to Fae’s underwear, and the last article of clothing on any of them.

Fae sucked a droplet of precum from Lorenz’s cock with a grin, before agreeing, advising Lorenz, “You may.”

Lorenz was too eager now, too assured, too justified, to even consider this decision. He slipped his finger under the band that held Fae’s panties to their left thigh and pinched the material, pulling them down past their knees as they straightened their legs and then hitched their left one again to accommodate their removal.

Fae blushed deeper than they had been, not used to being exposed in this way, eased by the affection and arousal of their partners. They went back to stroking Lorenz with their hands, jolting a little as his fingers found them, still wet from Claude’s petting, and slowly they found a rhythm in it, sucking and stroking, petting and prodding. Claude adjusted his posture to lean Lorenz further back, his hands wandering and pinching occasionally, as he went back to leaving ticklish little kisses along his skin, while Hilda crawled up beside them, pressing the fingertips on her left hand into the center of Lorenz’s breastbone as she sucked Lorenz’s left nipple into her mouth.

They continued on in this way for a few minutes, until Lorenz was vibrating his middle finger against Fae’s clit and they had to pull their mouth from his cock to sob for air.

“Lorenz.”

By now, Lorenz could feel Claude’s erection against his back, and being at the center of attention was feeling less and less desirable when compared with the prospect of seeing and touching and bringing pleasure to his partners. Fae calling out to him amplified this so that his shoulders wobbled to and fro as he sought to pull away from Claude and Hilda.

Hilda groped at Lorenz’s chest, fingernails trailing over rosy skin that had been agitated into sensitivity, before placing her hands on his chin and guiding his attention to where she could kiss him. His eyes closed, he could feel Hilda’s hands tracing over his body again, finding Claude’s hands and forcing them back until Lorenz was free to sit up, his right hand moving from Fae’s sex to their hip.

“Better?” Hilda asked softly.

“Mm-_m! _” Lorenz tried to grunt in approval, squeaking as Hilda squeezed her hand around Fae’s on the head of his cock. She giggled as she let go.

With a smile and a roll of his eyes, Lorenz lifted himself from between Claude’s legs, letting himself bounce back into the bed just beside him, his right leg still tangled between Claude’s. He wrapped his arms around him, and pulled him into deep and passionate open mouthed kisses, holding Claude’s upper arms as he pressed his chest against him.

“I can’t wait to touch your cock,” Lorenz all but moaned at him as he pulled away.

“You–?” Claude smiled, confused. “You _ can_.”

“Mm-mm,” Lorenz disagreed, chuckling, resting his hands on the front of Claude’s shoulders, rolling his thumbs over his chest. “I want to _ actually _ finger Fae first.” He looked over to them, catching Hilda’s gaze for an instant and licking his lips before asking, “If you’d like that?”

After Fae nodded, Hilda forced the men’s legs any which way to accommodate Fae’s position on the bed. They lay horizontal in front of them, their pelvis between Lorenz’s legs, their legs bent up and over his right leg and Claude’s left, their feet braced flat against the bed and tucked slightly under Claude’s right leg. From here, Fae’s back was curled up over Lorenz’s left leg, bent at the knee to allow for more space on their opposite side where Hilda could sit and kiss their face, turning to look over her shoulder at Lorenz and ensure he could see Fae’s expression as he rolled his wrist between their legs and penetrated them with his middle finger.

Lorenz went from watching Fae, to kissing Claude, his hand speeding and slowing mostly intentionally, but partially relative to how much he was able to divide his attention. He extended his left arm across their stomach and held their hip for purchase and his own stability. Claude caressed across Lorenz’s chest and neck with his right hand so that he curled around him, his left hand idly massaging Fae’s right knee.

Though Lorenz was good about grinding the heel of his thumb against Fae’s clit and the front of their sex, Hilda’s pulsed her hand on their pelvis, groping their mound as she leaned over them, sliding her breasts across their chest and occasionally looking for a kiss.

Sucking on Claude’s bottom lip as he pulled away from his mouth, Lorenz smiled at Claude’s hopeless expression before he turned his head to look at Fae, flush and panting, and Hilda, pleased and mischievous. He extracted his hand for a moment, holding their right thigh close to his body, unable to stop a blush as his cock pressed against it.

“Another finger?” Lorenz offered, feeling a little ridiculous, but he didn’t know how to ask but to ask.

Fae whimpered. “You have big hands.”

Claude snickered and bit into Lorenz’s right shoulder. “Fuck, I can’t wait.”

Lorenz blushed and ducked his head before confirming with Fae, “So that’s a no?”

“No,” Fae peeped. “No, it wasn’t a no…”

Lorenz smiled and caressed across their stomach until his left hand slid under Hilda’s, over their pelvis, to where he could caress their pussy with the side of his thumb as he assured them, “I’ll be careful.”

His focus reserved for them now, Lorenz let the pressure of his fingertips, bounced and patiently pressed against their cunt, ease his entrance, letting Fae’s body set his pace as he worked at pistoning his digits deeper and deeper inside them to where he could pet up against their inner walls. He might have felt concerned about keeping Claude and Hilda from … anything, if he were not certain that they were just as invested in building Fae’s enjoyment, even with Claude not being able to do much more than massage their calves.

When Lorenz was finally able to finger Fae at a pace that had their back arching skyward, and slick wet noises echoing in the room, Hilda plucked her mouth from their left breast, still twirling her fingers around their right nipple as she watched their unfocused expression, flush with arousal as they bounced their body down into the stimulation. She sat up and shifted away on the bed as she asked, “Alright, where are the condoms?”

A frozen moment of exchanged eye-contact passed over the others, Lorenz’s moving his hand to Fae’s knee for the sake of conversation.

“I have some in my wallet,” Claude said, pointing to where it sat on the dresser.

“But I–”

“But that’s–”

Lorenz and Fae spoke at once and then shared a look before Lorenz tossed his head back, as if irritated, while Hilda rifled through Claude’s things. “Why weren’t you all in _ my _ room?”

“Oh, that would’ve been good,” Hilda agreed, turning back to the others, holding up the five condoms she’d found in Claude’s wallet.

“Everything’s _ there,_” Lorenz said awkwardly. “With Magic between us.”

“My bag too,” Fae lamented.

“We’re fine,” Hilda assured them. “It’s fine.” She giggled at their disappointment and frisbee-tossed a condom to it struck Lorenz in the chest as she rejoined them on the bed.

Fae moved to sit beside Lorenz, still facing him and Claude, and now Hilda as Lorenz pulled her close. He was holding the condom between his middle and forefinger as he kissed across her face and neck, and then lower as he nuzzled her breastbone and ran his thumbs over her nipples. Fondling her breasts around him, Lorenz dragged his tongue across her skin, mouth open and panting from the thrill of it. 

He was sucking on her right breast when Hilda giggled again, more dark than before as she gently tugged as his hair, pulling him away. “Alright, you’ve gotta fuck Fae now, honey.”

Lorenz’s lower lip wavered as his face cracked in a weak smile. “Of course.” He looked to Fae, questioning, and they blushed and licked their lips in a way that was obviously habitual, but still tantalized.

Lorenz looked back to Hilda and then Claude, “Are you…? What are you doing?”

“Enjoying the show,” Claude promised, leaning forward to embrace Hilda, pressing his tongue into Lorenz’s mouth in a quick kiss, and then leaning back with Hilda in his arms.

Raising and lowering his eyebrows, Lorenz accepted that this was what was happening. He helped Fae lay down in the space where he had been sitting and was kneeling between their legs when he faltered with the condom in his fingers.

“Lorenz?” Fae peeped, concerned.

He rolled his fingers together on the hand that had recently been inside them, smiling meekly. “You’re not just … feeling pressured by Hilda’s suggestion, are you? I would hate to–”

Hilda rolled her head over her shoulder to Claude, looking incredulous, but Claude smiled and nuzzled her cheek as Fae cut Lorenz off. “Lorenz.”

They reached down between their legs, resting their left hand on their inner thigh while running the middle and ring fingers of their right hand between their lips, pinching their clit between their knuckles, pressing on their entrance; their fore and pinky fingers squishing their mound. “Please.”

Lorenz rubbed the back of his hands against his forehead, cursing, “Fuck, okay.”

Hilda whistled as Lorenz dressed himself in the condom, and he tried to sound dismissive, but he was laughing as he said, “I was already naked.”

“Oh, we noticed.”

“Yeah, we know.”

Claude and Hilda jeered over each other, and Lorenz was blushing in spite of himself, still erect; the embarrassment not being of a kind that would flag his arousal.

Lorenz’s seduction complete, Fae no longer looked wanton and desperate, and was smiling at him with such good humor that this final assurance from his partners set him completely at ease. Fae bent their knees up, feet on the bed, as Lorenz took himself in one hand, and caressed from their thigh to their hip with his other, to gain purchase as he drove them together with a roll of his hips.

As Fae and Lorenz gasped, Claude tightened his grip around Hilda, and she wiggled until she had the space she needed to adjust their position to lay on her side with Claude’s erection between her ass cheeks.Once in place, so too did she take his hand around her and encouraged him to grope her breasts. He swallowed most of a whimper as he ground up against her, not wanting to distract Lorenz.

At first Fae held their hands down on their upper chest to steady the sway of their breasts, but as Lorenz’s left hand found the top of their mound and his right hand fell forward onto the bed by their hip as he thrust himself deeper, they instead reached out towards him. Leaning his face into their touch, he clenched his hand in the sheets as they curled his hair behind his ears, touching him so tenderly while they humped away at each other.

Hilda was playing with her pussy with her left hand, her right curled back behind herself to scratch at the back of Claude’s head as they bounced too, languid and comfortable.

The friction and fucking continued in a similar way for some time, but then Fae moaned, and it was a noise that none of them had ever heard them make before, and after a collective encouraging sigh, Lorenz’s composure started to slip. He sobbed in pleasure, reaching out to take their waist in both hands, and leaned back enough so that Fae wrapped their legs around his hips to aid in their connection as he raised them towards him, fucking them faster.

“**_Oh!_ ** Yeah! _ Yeah… _ Yes! **Lorenz!**”

“Oh, yeah,” Claude growled before licking Hilda’s upper arm, wrapped around his head as she was.

“Fuck,” Lorenz grunted, laying them down again to where he could cage them under his arms, hands to either side of their head, and play games with their pace and intensity.

Fae bent one of their legs higher to wrap up around the back of his shoulders, and Hilda purred. “They look delicious, don’t they?”

Claude giggled, pinching Hilda’s nipple until her legs shifted back and forth, overstimulated. “I’ll gladly help you lick them clean after, if you want?”

Lorenz whined and slowed to slip his left arm down around Fae’s thigh, leading it from behind him to rest against his chest as he surged closer, planting a kiss on their forehead, moaning with them about the change in angle.

“That is…” Fae sighed, their eyelids fluttering closed. “Fuck. Fuck me like this Lorenz. Right there.”

He felt strange to ask, but he was ready to beg for anything – to work for anything. “Tell me if you’re cumming.”

They smiled, open-mouthed and a little wild, as they reached up to lay their hand on his chest, squeezing their spread fingers upon him. “I’ve cum twice already.”

“What?” Lorenz was smiling, but he hadn’t been able to manage any seriousness in his answer, the whole question a desperate exhale. He glanced at Claude and Hilda, who nodded and blew him a kiss in turn.

“Once _ was _ while you were fingering me,” Fae said in a way that they obviously expected to mean something, but Lorenz just shook his head and interrupted his pace twice to thrust at them **hard** as he watched their expression. Seeing that their words had been insufficient explanation, Fae decided to lean into the teasing, whimpering, “You couldn’t tell?

Lorenz was just too tortured, he couldn’t think too hard on the question while the knee around his hip squeezed him closer on every inward thrust. “Please,” he begged.

Fae’s expression was tense and pleasured. They pinched his nipple and clenched around his cock. “I’ll tell you.”

Pulling their leg free, Fae held the back of each their thighs so they were open and accommodating to the angle they’d asked for, moaning as Lorenz fucked them at a far slower, steady pace, and moved one hand up on their chest to pinch and massage and hold and touch.

“Oh … **yes…** ” Fae sighed eventually. Their voice was deep and heady, and Lorenz felt them tighten further, their hips jutting out to meet him out of sync with his pace until he raced to meet them. They squeaked, “_Lorenz, I’m going to cum!_"

Lorenz made an unintelligible noise in response. They were warm and wet around him, soft and firm and real beneath him, loving and desirous and trusting of him … He squinted his eyes closed. “Can I?”

Fae heard Claude and Hilda moan in time with them, arousal and an interest in assuring Lorenz tickling the trio.

“Yes. Lorenz,” Fae hiccuped. “Let go, sweetheart.”

He was moaning instantly, but not climaxing yet, his body heaving and sweating as he let his speed, and energy, and passion get the better of him. He fisted his right hand in Fae’s hair so that their neck was exposed to him to where he could let his mouth drag against their skin, lazy kisses and tortured whining.

This made Fae cum first; his openness, his attention, and his hot, raging cock, indulging their every need. He shifted away as their breathing heightened and their body went rigid so that he could admire them a moment, and then curled back into and onto them, panting against their temple as his cock twitched and his grip tightened through his orgasm.

When Fae’s exultations started to ebb and Lorenz’s tight-lipped mouth held back his whimpers as he snuffled for breath, Claude felt Hilda curl her back away from him and whined openly.

“_Hilda_...”

“Soon, honey,” she promised, shifting so that she could leave a kiss on his lips.

Lorenz scoffed, extracting himself from Fae so that he could slide down the bed to properly kiss their mouth, where they shared whispered and animate ‘I love you’s, and then their cunt, before turning to sit on the edge of the bed to tie off the condom. Hilda found it easy to leave Claude’s embrace then, and crawled between Fae’s legs to tangle herself around them, kissing them deep and wild as she wrapped a leg over their hip and rolled her pussy against theirs. They were giggling and rolling away from Claude when he noticed Lorenz reaching for his clothing on the floor.

With a raised eyebrow, Claude slid to sit next to his right side on the edge of the bed. He was concerned he’d find Lorenz reticent or regretful, but Lorenz smiled at him, relaxed and unguarded, and blushing deep pink.

Regardless of what he and Claude got up to specifically, sleeping with Fae meant for Lorenz that he’d now had sex with a partner who was not a woman, not to mention he’d now had sex since his last failed relationship. It was a little thrilling.

He abandoned reaching for his clothes, and pressed on Claude’s shoulders as he dove in to kiss him. Their mouths parted as Claude bounced against the bed, and Claude gasped in surprise as Lorenz pulled his head to the side with his right hand in his hair, while his left found his dick.

“Shit,” Claude hissed, to the soundtrack of Hilda and Fae fucking around, as Lorenz’s mouth went from soft and wet on his neck, to open and gnawing on his jaw.

Lorenz hummed just below Claude’s ear, dragging the precum that had coated his head down the length of his cock. “You’ve been waiting a while.”

“I’m going to get my bag,” Fae said suddenly, and Lorenz frowned at Claude, pulling his hand away and licking his fingertips experimentally. 

“No, I’m,” Lorenz hesitated, grabbing his pants. “I’ll get it. I’ll grab the lube too.” A huff of air escaped Claude, a bitter laugh, as he realized that that had likely been Lorenz’s intention from the start.

“Don’t touch your dog,” Hilda called out in warning as he left, and Lorenz rolled his eyes, nodding his agreement. He was already raising his knee to nudge Magic as he stepped out of the room.

As soon as he’d gone, Fae and Hilda crawled over to Claude, groping at his neck and chest as they took turns kissing him, Hilda energized with excitement at his side, while Fae pecked his lips with gentle comfort when there was room for them to lean over him from behind.

Lorenz returned quickly, tossing Fae their bag and shrugging towards Claude as he handed him a bottle. Surprised that he felt more self-conscious about being the only one dressed than the concept of undressing, Lorenz reseated himself and instantly started pulling off his clothes.

Claude ran his eyes over the label, trying to find a casual smile in his arsenal, to keep from looking desperate. “So what are we doing with this?”

“Maybe nothing,” Lorenz answered, trying not to be overbearing, but Claude pouted, putting the bottle behind himself as Fae and Hilda crawled into the opposite corner of the bed.

“That’s no fun.”

Lorenz chuckled, kissing Claude again. “I mean,” he sighed, “whatever you want.”

Fae was opening the wrapper of a sealed nitrile glove, letting Hilda help them put it on, as the pair of them giggled and tried to remember with which hands and how seriously they’d recently jacked off the men.

When that was done, they were making out, Fae grinding themselves along Hilda’s knee and thigh, as they pet and fingered her.

Bashful and determined, Lorenz was moving to crouch on the floor between Claude’s legs. Claude made a small noise of understanding and shifted closer to the edge of the bed, parting his knees farther, eager for solid stimulation. A soft amused breath hitched his shoulders as Lorenz stroked a hand across his shaft and licked his lips while admiring Claude’s erection, nervous and desirous in his appraisal.

Lorenz opened his mouth near Claude’s cock, extending his tongue to lap slowly at his shaft, just below his head, and Claude reached out to hold the back of Lorenz’s head; not guiding, just connecting them further, as shivers danced up his spine, out over his shoulders and straight through his chest.

Fae extended themselves over Hilda, curled up as she was, so that their breasts brushed up against her face. Hilda gladly parted her lips to lick and suck at Fae’s chest, massaging her left hand against them. As they made a soft appreciative noise, Hilda jut her hips up into the circular motions of their fingers, and her thigh up against their sex.

Tilting his head, Lorenz sucked Claude’s cock between his lips at an angle, squishing a splash of precum above one side of his upper lip. Claude’s stomach tensed and his fingers grabbed at Lorenz’s hair, tortured by the sight, and then the sensation of Lorenz moving his lips back and forth around the head of his cock; all while suffering soft lustful curls of his tongue.

Lorenz was building depth and speed, never really swallowing Claude deeper than halfway down his length, but making up the difference with his hands. He did pace himself through it twice to Claude’s groaning approval, but it seemed secondary, at the moment, when he could instead hope that they would do something like this again, without the pressure of it being the first time. To each their relief, Lorenz preferred to focus on the convenient and the gratifying, and whatever caused Claude to rock his hips forward in arrested little thrusts. Twice he slipped from Lorenz’s mouth and found himself caught in his grip, and each time Claude offered praise and compliments to his blushing boyfriend, looking up at him through his purple lashes.

Fae’s expression was something like embarrassment as they tried to lean away from Hilda, and she sucked on regardless, stretching out their breast. They angled their fingers to rock up against the front of Hilda’s pussy in retaliation, holding the pressure as she squealed, mouth full. They repeated the motion even after Hilda’s lips trembled apart in a moan, and her hand skipped from their chest to their upper arm, clinging encouragingly.

Fae had been intending to reposition to kiss Hilda’s hips and thighs, but then they gasped in shocked arousal. “Wait, are you going to cum?”

Hilda was whining and nodding, biting her lower lip, arching up to meet them. “Just–! Please–! I–!”

“Oh, don’t worry, Hilda,” Fae promised, squeezing her hip and continuing to fuck her with their fingers.

Hilda crescendoed, and Claude and Lorenz both stuttered in their motions. Lorenz’s teeth slipped on Claude’s thigh where he’d been sucking, and Claude groaned and bucked up into the hands on his cock.

“Do you want to cum–?” Lorenz had intended to finish his question with the words, ‘like this,’ but Claude was desperate and animate.

“_Yes! _ I – I want to cum.”

Lorenz swallowed, as that had done something unexpected and powerful to his arousal. He ran his tongue back and forth along the head of Claude’s dick before asking, “What do you need from me?”

“**More**,” Claude begged, linking his fingers behind Lorenz’s head and now applying pressure, his face red and snarling.

Lorenz moaned around Claude’s cock. With a firm grip he stroked the base of him and moved his right hand to Claude’s thigh as he bobbed faster, thrilled that Claude pulled him inwards with each repeated motion to increase his pace even further.

“Yes. Ah. Fuck. Fuh-ck. Lor–Lorenz. Lorenz. Lor–”

Having been watching Claude fall apart so beautifully, Lorenz nearly lost grip with his lips when his mouth threatened to break into a smile when he realized Fae and Hilda had rolled around on the bed to spy on their intimacy. The action caused drool and precum to spill out of the sides of his mouth, and slick his bottom lip. Lorenz let go of Claude’s thigh, raising his hand only an inch as he thought, habitually, to wipe at his chin, but then planted his hand back down, firm and deliberate in refraining from interrupting this moment – a decision he was immediately thankful for as Claude grunted, “Oh, I’m cumming.” Lorenz purred, vibrating himself around Claude’s sensitive cock, drawing one more exclamation out of him. “Oh, ** _fuck!_ **”

Lorenz removed his hand from Claude’s shaft after the first spurt of his orgasm, and slowly bobbed his head deeper, even after Claude had finished cumming, until he could rest stationary, and revel in the indulgence of being full of cum and cock in a very satisfying first. He swallowed, and Claude whimpered a small strangled noise, dropping his hands from Lorenz’s head to his shoulders.

Pulling away, Lorenz was flushed from exertion, and arousal, and embarrassment.

“Oh,” Claude groaned. “Oh, Lorenz ... lover ... sweetheart, that was ... so good.”

“It looked good,” Fae agreed.

Hilda stuck her tongue out towards him as Lorenz wiped at his chin and neck, first with his hands and then with his shirt, collected from the floor.

He huffed, looking away and back. “It felt good.” He reached down to squeeze absently at his cock, half hard again.

They exchanged a look, and Lorenz leaned up, between Claude’s legs, kissing him.

With a smile, Lorenz shook his head so their noses bounced together, and then found himself fighting for Claude’s attention as Hilda bit his ear and squeezed his arm between her breasts, while Fae situated themselves behind Hilda, to extend their gloved hand around to her mound. Pulled from the floor into the foray, Lorenz again lamented that they weren’t in his bed, which was already insufficient to the task of holding the four of them. This bed was smaller and worse for it, as they kissed and groped and fumbled, nearly tipping the thing more than twice.

Lorenz was removing a glove wet with Hilda’s cum as he asked her, “Do you want to fuck Claude together?”

“Oh?” Hilda peeped in interest as Fae giggled and Claude’s mouth fell open.

“That’s…”

With a chuckle, Lorenz reached up to cradle Claude’s face, stroking his thumb across a wild eyebrow, Claude’s expression incredulous and hopeful.

“You keep acting like I’m virginal,” Lorenz chastised, smiling, smug. “I can fuck you, Claude.”

Claude looked to Fae, who shrugged. He nodded at Lorenz. “You’re promising a lot.”

“I’m,” Lorenz tilted his head down, changing his tone, blushing deeper, “actually asking,” he shifted to sit on his side, his legs curled beside him, “if you can stay hard while being fucked. That’s something I have no experience with, and am aware is not a requirement.”

Claude sighed, his breath so deep that it whistled out of him. A single huff of amusement bounced his whole chest; overwhelmed, when he wasn’t even between them yet. “I can… I mean usually…” He scratched a finger behind his ear. “I’d like to try.”

Lorenz turned his elation and renewed curiosity to Hilda, who was biting her bottom lip and nodding. She danced a little, joyous and amused. “How long have you had this fantasy?”

Lorenz covered his mouth with and open hand for a moment before answering, “I can’t be the only one whose been watching bisexual porn in anticipation of this?”

Lorenz was relieved by his partners’ snickering, regardless of whether it indicated solidarity or not. Fae asked, “Only in anticipation of this? Not before?”

While Lorenz rolled his eyes, Claude pouted, tortured by the idea of Lorenz, or any of them, masturbating to the thought of him; when hardly mattered. He leaned back and smiled weakly to Hilda. Coiling a hand around her neck, Claude led her into another kiss while grabbing at the inside of her knee as they both started falling back into the bed.

Fae and Lorenz spoke of how they intended to position their lovers, and each collected a new glove. Meanwhile Claude ran his thumb back and forth over Hilda’s moist lips, the only one of them who hadn’t yet needed a glove. He panted heavily into her neck while she pinched his right nipple and bit around his earring.

Claude whimpered when he felt hands find his legs, and he kissed Hilda in parting as Fae and Lorenz tugged him away from her, guiding him until he was bent over the bed. After adjusting himself, he took Hilda around the waist, and helped her wiggle in front of him, where he could kiss her stomach and thighs and soft pink pussy when he wasn’t otherwise too distracted.

His legs slightly parted, Claude’s stomach tightened as he felt Lorenz’s long fingers gliding over his spine, angling him more towards Hilda. Fae’s bare hand groped at the side of his ass, and Claude made a soft comfortable noise as he leaned into the touch. Warm gloved fingers and cool, slick lubricant found the cleft of his ass and Claude distracted himself by running his tongue back and forth over the ripples of old stretch marks on the inside of Hilda’s thigh, as the new sensation sent shivers across his skin and a twitch through his recovered cock.

“You look so good, lover,” Fae promised, fluttering their middle finger back and forth across Claude’s ass hole. When he took a deep breath, as if to find his voice, Fae used the pads of their first three fingers to massage the lube around his entrance in firm circles, like a spirograph, and then he was just gasping instead, as Fae looked over him to Hilda. “And you’re beautiful, Hilda.”

Hilda winked and tossed her head back as she stretched her arms out behind herself, rolling her pelvis up towards Claude twice so that he looked up to her, dragging his open mouth across her skin.

Fae and Lorenz took turns fingering Claude open, cooing adoration and arousal as he whimpered and sucked on Hilda’s clit; and she was even more vocal in her appreciation. He savored the compliments from the three of them, and hoped they wouldn’t tire of praising him before he could properly recognize and articulate why their words felt so good.

Lorenz was slowly pushing in with two fingers until they crested past the second set of knuckles, and Claude’s shoulders jolted. Fae had been rubbing their bare hand on his back, but left him free of contact as they skipped around Lorenz while he rested in place so they could stand on Claude’s opposite side and curl their hand under his hip along the line of his pelvis.

When their hand found his cock, Claude arched down so that his head raised up from Hilda with a groan.

“Too much?” Fae asked, stilling their hand.

“A lot,” Claude offered weakly.

“Then I’ll be less,” Lorenz promised. “For now.”

Claude let himself fall back down, face first into Hilda’s stomach. She giggled and curled her heels over his back and her fingers in his hair, soothing him as he nuzzled against her.

Lorenz retreated his fingers, finding more lube and then pistoning them only past the first knuckle a few times before retreating his index finger entirely. He plunged his middle finger into his lover, blushing about the feel and warmth and shape of him, and the way his hips stuttered now as Fae fondled his cock.

Fae was removing their glove, moving to sit on the floor, when Lorenz pressed softly downwards and Claude’s knees jerked closer together, a curse passing his lips before he was snuffling for breath, looking up to Hilda with a dizzy expression.

“Oh.” Lorenz licked his lips, rubbing his finger in a solid circle in the same position. “This–?”

“Yeah,” Claude sobbed, his left leg jittering as Fae crawled down beneath him. He reached up to grasp at Hilda’s breasts, pinching at her nipples with his thumbs. “Lorenz. There.”

Fae massaged Claude’s thighs for a moment before taking his cock in hand again and angling him down into their mouth. They were so warm compared to the cool air of the room catching the precum on his cock that it was a challenge to not rut into them and away from the rhythm Lorenz was finding. Claude didn’t even realize he’d been seeing stars until Lorenz was pulling his hand away, and then pressing back in with two fingers again, holding the side of his ass comfortingly.

It wasn’t long now before Lorenz’s fingers were able to sink, slow and unhurried, with the weight of their own pressure, deep into his patient lover. He rocked his hand from side to side, pressing the pads of his fingers against Claude before pulling his hand away entirely.

“Fuck,” Lorenz whispered, anticipation hitting him like a brick wall. He took Claude by the hips and rocked up against him so that he could feel the brush of his erection.

“Oh, yes,” Claude moaned, looking over his shoulder at Lorenz. He grit his teeth and exhaled sharply, nodding.

Lorenz tore the wrist on his glove removing it, and quickly dressed himself in a condom and lube, as Fae kissed Claude’s knee and clambered out from beneath him.

“Kneel up on the bed.” From Lorenz’s tone, it was obvious that he was begging, and Claude snickered as he rolled his body forward, forcing Hilda back against the sheets as he moved to comply, resting on spread knees.

Thrusting himself against Claude in a way that was more like bouncing, Lorenz let himself relax and bent over Claude as the head of his cock sunk past that relaxed ring of muscle. Claude gasped and moaned, and Lorenz straightened up, goosebumps rising on his arms.

“You’re both so red,” Hilda cooed. She pulled Claude’s head back by his hair as Lorenz skipped his hips back and away again so that his expression shifted wildly in surprise. “Are you sure you don’t want to just have your moment?”

Lorenz was massaging more lube on his cock when he answered, “We’ll get to you.”

Claude nodded, his mouth falling open in a gasp before he snapped his mouth closed as Lorenz penetrated him again. Fae crawled up onto the bed kissing the side of Claude’s face and then Hilda’s smiling lips as Lorenz rolled a thumb on Claude’s lower back and wrapped his other arm around Claude’s waist driving them together with several careful repeated thrusts.

“Oh, I,” Claude moaned. “I love you, Lorenz.”

Lorenz chuckled a little, bouncing his body in a way that had Claude almost snarling through an open mouthed smile at his other partners.

“I love you too,” Lorenz promised, grabbing Claude by both hips and driving himself back and forth until Claude was whining happy little grunts, and Lorenz had to stop to stay his own enjoyment.

“Alright,” Lorenz asserted, pulling away.

“Yeah?” Hilda taunted.

Lorenz nodded, running his hands down Claude’s back gently. “Claude, why don’t you lay down?”

They rolled around, Fae kissing Claude’s tired mouth while Hilda fetched him a condom, and Lorenz propped pillows. He drizzled more lubrication along himself, and kneeled up between Claude’s legs, pressing his hands into the underside of his thighs as he positioned them.

“Are you going to ask me if I’m sure?” Claude taunted, and after a roll of his eyes, Lorenz smiled.

“Are you?”

Before Claude had time to answer, Lorenz was leaning forward, not quite penetrating him. Claude let his eyes flutter closed, smiling to himself.

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m sure.”

Claude was licking his lips and nearly choked on his tongue when Lorenz thrust back in, tipping his left thigh up to accommodate the angle. He thrust them back and forth a few times and Claude whimpered about the teasing, until he felt pressure on his chest, and opened his eyes again to Fae pinching his left nipple and Hilda leaning down over his side to suck his cock into her mouth.

“Oh, fuck. I’m–” he chuckled, extending a hand around Hilda’s back, “I’m still sure.”

She hummed around his erection and Claude lay his head back to stare at nothing on the ceiling as Lorenz jut his hips forward, forcing him deeper between Hilda’s lips. Hilda pulled off and started adjusting her hair until Fae helped her, and then she and Lorenz were playing this game with Claude that he wasn’t sure he had any stakes in but was confident he was winning.

Releasing his cock, Hilda fondled Claude’s balls up towards his body so that she could watch, as much as she could see, where Lorenz disappeared inside him before following the sight up the firm line of his stomach to the rosy glow of his chest.

“You look good, Lorenz.”

“I’m–”

She reached up and placed a hand on his neck, straddling Claude’s stomach so he could feel the soft, wet sensation of her lips on his skin. Stretched out like this, she kissed Lorenz and then retreated back to work at rolling a condom down Claude’s hard cock.

Lorenz didn’t stop for that, but afterwards he did still, waiting as Hilda turned around to face Claude, and reached down beneath herself to hold him in position as she helped the head of his cock inside of her.

“_Ah-a! Ah-a! FucK!_” Claude whined, reaching out towards Hilda, hands on her thighs, and then he really felt the extent of his predicament as she settled back down another fraction of an inch. “Ho… This just… This is just how it’s going to be, isn’t it?”

“Are you alright?” Fae asked carefully.

“Oh no, I’m … I’m perfect. They’re perfect. It’s– I’m– Fuck…” Claude babbled.

A single peal of laughter left Fae as they looked to Hilda and Lorenz, each blushing, as they announced, “Well, just know I’m here. If any of you need something.”

They pinched both of Claude’s nipples for good measure as Hilda finished her descent and Claude’s mouth was open and panting as he moved his hands from Hilda’s thighs to her breasts.

“So thoughtful,” Hilda giggled as she wrapped her hands around Claude’s and rolled her hips up and down.

Claude’s body bounced once, as if he might laugh, but then it was just stuttering in stimulation, as Lorenz pistoned his hips back and forth, and Hilda settled again, and reminded him that she used to be a dancer, swiveling her hips without raising them. He pinched Hilda’s nipples, and she wondered whether it was in retaliation or distraction, as Claude looked absolutely wrecked already.

Fae came to kneel beside her. They licked two fingertips and reached over Hilda’s thigh to rub back and forth between her legs, inconsistently finding her clit between the movements of the others, but Hilda squealed her approval all the same. She leaned back so that she bumped against Lorenz, and shared a kiss with Fae as she slowed her hips and then extended further back, wrapping her arm up behind herself to pull Lorenz forward into another kiss also.

Claude was moaning. 

Hilda straightened herself upright and extended her legs wider around Claude’s hips, moving her hands to his stomach as she raised and lowered herself in a way that Lorenz was able to mimic, and that tripped a delighted moan out of her.

Lorenz hadn’t quite accounted for the absolutely luscious show Hilda was going to put on and half a laugh escaped him when he had to stop for a moment to keep from orgasming. He waited, as flush with Claude as the position would allow, to find his will again, but all Claude could feel was Lorenz’s solid pressure and Hilda’s warm, wet weight, and he had never felt so turned on in his life.

Hilda started flexing and relaxing the muscles in her ass, bouncing herself on Claude’s cock and into Fae’s fingers, and Claude dropped his hands from her breasts to her hips.

“Hilda!” Claude warned.

“Oh, yeah,” she growled, speeding. “You like that?”

“Fuck!” Claude yelped. “I–”

“Come on Claude, we can cum together.”

“Oh my–” Lorenz whimpered before he was grunting, cumming before either of them, twitching in a way that stole Claude’s moans from him, so that his mouth was open and panting, as he was accosted by the pulse of Lorenz’s thick cock in his ass.

Lorenz buried his face in Hilda’s shoulder as she cooed a noise of approval before going back to her own efforts, rocking her hips back and forth before flexing her knees so that she vibrated in Claude’s lap.

As Lorenz pulled away however, Claude tightened his grip on Hilda’s hips and found the energy to fuck himself up into her, and that was finally what did it. Claude’s neck extended so that he was barely watching Hilda as she giggled and smiled and touched herself, as her last few satisfied yelps filled the room.

Hilda let her body sag until she could slip Claude from between her legs and lay down across him, kissing his face as his chest continued to twitch beneath her; his heart trying to remember what it meant to not be hammering out of his rib cage.

Fae waited for Lorenz to help himself out of his condom before they advanced on him from behind, wrapping their hands around his neck, kissing the back of his right ear. He leaned into it for only a moment or two before bringing them with him to lay next to Claude.

Lorenz accepted a kiss from Hilda after he’d laid down, and asked her, his tone all amusement and exhaustion, “Was it everything you hoped for?”

Claude snickered, but Hilda gave him a heavy look as she asked, “Are you going to make me wait another two months for the next time?”

“Oh, that sounds like a fair refractory period,” Claude sighed, smiling with his eyes closed when he could feel Hilda look back to him.

“No,” Lorenz promised.

“Then it was perfect,” Hilda allowed, kissing him, crawling off of Claude so that he could throw out his condom also.

When he returned, he sat beside where Fae was laying and wrapped a hand around their thigh. “You didn’t feel left out?”

“Hardly,” they laughed. They turned away from him and kissed Lorenz’s shoulder, as he was closest. They looked from him to Hilda and then back to Claude. “I love you.”

The room alit with soft confessions and confirmations, punctuated by kisses and laughter.

They forced Lorenz to dress first, and take Magic into his backyard while they took turns trying to wash up less seriously than before. Everyone’s hair was still mussed and ridiculous when they reconvened in the basement, and so Hilda, Fae and Claude sat in a line on the floor, the seat of the couch and the back of it, to braid each other’s tangles; Hilda mimicking the idea of it as she rubbed at Magic's back. Meanwhile, they offered Lorenz advice as he shopped for a bed, because while they’d been reticent in the beginning, they were confident now that what they’d been pursuing with one another was stronger than a fleeting whim, and was instead a decision they would continue to make.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finished something! Something I didn't write / post all at once, and something that was more than one chapter. I'm so proud of me. I hope the ending was satisfying / acceptable ... I've had to have my friends assure me that I could come back to this if I wanted, but for now, it's done! <33333
> 
> I'd love if you left a kudos or comment if you enjoyed this - especially if you're a guest.
> 
> I feel guilty about having background ships tagged as well as all the smut. Maybe let me know your thoughts on that, and whether I should try to keep fics that feature other characters M rated?
> 
> This is unrelated to my other Modern AU fic [Oops](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21167993) and my modern-setting Soulmate AU fic [I Wanna Be Yours](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22716091), but maybe you'd enjoy those or my other works if you liked this?
> 
> Edit: I keep forgetting to share that this fic has fanart now! Sort of: [It's tucked away in this post.](https://omgkalyppso.tumblr.com/post/189948064726/mochiibunns-happy-holidays-yall-i-hope-youre)
> 
> Edit 2: I drew MYSELF some more fanart. [It's not of any particular moment in the fic.](https://omgkalyppso.tumblr.com/post/626907629093044224/id-art-of-characters-from-fire-emblem-three)


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